Skydiving!!

Dad Shepherd, Nicki, and I had the time of our lives skydiving in June.  This is something that all three of us have always wanted to do.  We thought it a particularly good time to go since we were married for eternity by then... jk

On 19 June, we traveled down to Skydive Orange, roughly 2 hours south of us, to have the experience of a lifetime.  We were not disappointed in this regard.

When we arrived, a book-sized set of permission forms were handed to us.  The next five hours were spent going over these forms guaranteeing, in about 1000 different ways, that we wouldn't sue them.   Once finished, they shuffled us out outside where we practiced throwing back our hands, head, and legs properly.  The purpose of this was to not drive our tandem jumping instructor crazy when falling out of the sky.  We were now fully qualified jumpers.

We waited for a while, took pictures, and watched other jumpers land.  They called our numbers and we went to the hanger to gear up.  A sturdy harness and helmet was strapped on us, we met our jumping instructors, and then headed to the plane.

The plane had two benches where we sat in front of our instructors.  The plane took off and seemed to reach 13,000 feet really fast (our jumping altitude).  Before we knew it, our instructors were pushing us to the plane's open door.  We didn't have much time to get nervous.  Our instructors counted to 3 and pushed us out the door.  The sensation that followed is simply indescribable--elation, exhilaration, terror, enjoyment, and sheer joy!

At 6,000, after about a minute of free fall,  feet we all pulled our shoots.  Instantly, the screaming wind stopped and it was almost silent.  Floating out of the sky is an incredibly peaceful feeling.  We floated down for about 5 minutes.  Our tandem instructors, while guiding us back to the hanger, spun us around by pulling on the shoots' sides.  This was enough for Nicki to loose it when she hit the ground.  Her lunch didn't stand a chance. 

All in all, it was an amazing experience!  We strongly recommend it to everyone!

Enjoy the pictures.