So we jumped out of an airplane.

That’s right. We went sky diving.

We went with our great friend Becca who was the instigator of all of it! Well, we just like to blame Becca 🙂 She had mentioned to us earlier in the summer that sky diving was something she had always wanted to do.  At the time, we didn’t have much planned for the summer, so we decided we would all save up and go sky diving at the end of summer.  I think the thing I loved most about it was our attitudes of “let’s not just talk about doing something, but actually do it.”

So August rolled around and we jumped out of an airplane!

We went to a sky diving company outside of town that seemed the most reputable. (I mean, we were trusting them with our lives after all!) When we arrived, we watched a video that tells you about 14 times that you could die doing this. It was only then that I realized I forgot to ask our friend Chelsea to take in Gus if anything ever happened to us. But, don’t worry, she has since agreed to do so.

After the doom and gloom video, we had some hands on training which involved learning how we would be strapped to the instructor, practicing the position you take when you’re in the initial free fall and then also how to get to the edge of the plane to make the jump.

Then it was time to suite up!

Josh and I went together in the first plane. I was actually most nervous about the airplane ride up to 10,000 feet. Last time I was in a small airplane, it did not end well (throwing up, losing all electronics in the airplane, shutting down Honolulu International airport, making an emergency landing…but that’s another story) so I took my dramamine and hoped for the best.  The ride wasn’t terrible, I just closed my eyes and tried not to focus on the jolting as best I could. Next thing I knew, it was time to start getting hooked to the instructor.

Then the door flew open.

Whew! It’s chilly 10,000 feet in the air! Josh and his instructor inched to the edge of the door way. And I saw my husband disappear out of the airplane. Let me tell you, that alone was an unnerving experience. Then it was my turn to edge my way to the door. I looked down at the ground, 10,000 feet below me. That was the only time I second guessed my decision to do this, but there wasn’t any going back….so the next thing I knew, I was flying through the air at 160 mph.  I’m really glad my instructor reminded me to breathe, because it’s hard to catch your breath diving that fast!

After about 20-30 seconds of intense free fall, the parachute opened and it was nice gently cruise through the sky. I saw Josh’s parachute under neath me. So that was a nice relief knowing he was safe. We glided through the air for several minutes, and even flew through a cloud!

The instructor pulled the ropes controlling the parachute hard to one side which sent us in to a fast spiral turn. After a few times of that, I was done with fast turns (remember the whole motion sickness thing…) and with 1,000 feet left we started getting aligned to make our landing. I popped my feet up to make an “L” shape with my body and we made a safe landing on the ground.

After we got all of our gear off. It was time for Becca to suite up and make the same journey!

We had so much fun crossing that off our bucket list. It was definitely worth it.