Our day in the sky

I knew I wanted to do something special for Christian to celebrate our 1st year anniversary. Skydiving was something that we had always talked about. It was on each of our "bucket lists." Christian is super hard to shop for, and he always gets me the best gifts, so this time I was determined to make an impression.

My old roommate Brooke, recommended Skydive Zion and so I sneakily called up Rick (the owner and instructor) and bought two skydiving gift certificates. July 1st came around and I presented Christian with the surprise. He was stoked! As we planned our weekend, we decided to keep the whole jumping out of a plane thing on the DL. I knew my parents would worry and so we kept our secret to ourselves.

Friday after work, Christian and I drove down to St. George in preparation for our jump the next morning. Christian slept fine but I on the other hand was freaking out. This video kept popping into my head and I was feeling super guilty for having deceived my parents and not letting them know what we were really doing in St. George. What if we died?! The last memory my family would have would be saying bye to us for a quick weekend trip. My guilt overtook me and I wrote goodbye letters in my journal that night telling my family how much I love them. Haha, I can be a little dramatic sometimes. Anyway, the next morning we woke up, and got to the Hurricane airport at 8am to start our training. We met our instructor, signed a lengthy document promising we wouldn't sue and that we were jumping out of plane by our own choice, etc. Then after a brief training, it was finally time. When I first got a look at the plane that would take us up there, I got even more nervous.

This guy only holds three people. The pilot, our instructor, and the jumper. And here I thought Christian and I would be able to go up together. Christian volunteered to go first, so he suited up.

I was trying to keep a brave face, but as I saw my husband take off in that mini plane, I lost it. I just sat on the runway and cried, haha. I kept thinking to myself, "What have I done?! My husband is going to die and it will be all my fault!" The writer in me came out and I kept writing news stories in my brain about our tragic deaths..."Husband Killed After Wife Encourages Skydiving for Anniversary."

With binoculars I was able to watch the plane circle around and ascend to 11,000 feet above me, the door swing open, and then a black dot exit the plane and speed toward the earth. Knowing that black dot was Christian almost brought on more tears. Then thankfully, I saw his chute open. Relief!

He glided back to earth and I ran to him and gave him a big hug and kiss. Christian had a blast (much better than my experience on the ground.) If you want a good laugh, watch this video of his free fall. It gets me every time :) (For some reason Blogger won't load the video here...so click the link to watch.)

Then came my turn. With the safe return of my husband, I was feeling lots better about the whole thing. I was honestly ten times more nervous watching Christian go up than I was jumping out of the plane. After a brief refresher about how to exit the plane, etc, it was my turn to put on the harness and goggles.

The plane ride up wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The view was beautiful, and because we were over the Zion area, we saw lots of red rock and even some storms in the distance with sheets of grey rain falling to the ground. At 11,000 feet, it was time to open the hatch. This was probably the most intense part of the whole thing. You open this door and then the instructor tells you to swing your feet out onto this little step. The wind is so fast, that my legs kept swinging out from under me. Once I got my feet on the platform, I had to pull myself out the plane. We did a tandem jump, meaning the instructor was strapped to our back, but once you jumped out of the plane, you couldn't even tell another person was there. It was crazy!

The free fall only lasts for about 45 secs, but man, you are going fast! Falling at 120 mph is quite an experience, to say the least. I honestly can't remember too many details because you barely have enough time to wrap your brain around the fact that you're plummeting toward the earth. Fortunately, we got videos that documented the whole thing. My jump isn't nearly as entertaining as Christian's, mostly I just smile and look super stressed out, haha. 

Once I pulled the ripcord, and the parachute was open, the ride settled down considerably. Rick gave me the controls and I was able to glide us this way and that and then bring us in for a landing. And man was I grateful to be back on the ground, and especially grateful neither Christian nor I had to walk away from that experience without a spouse.

That's me waaaaaay up there.

It was definitely a unique experience and I am so glad we both had the guts to do it. Time to cross skydiving off of the bucket list! Check!!