It's a bird. No it's a plane. No its...

Dave & Nicole skydiving!!! We finally got to go on Sunday! It was hot as hell but there was hardly a cloud in the sky!

The stressful work up for the past week and half was for NO reason! It was absolutely A-MAZING! There are not words to describe it! I was more nervous this time because I knew the weather was perfect and there were no outside forces that were going to stop us from going up (unless both planes were broke down!?! Wishful thinking..)

We didn't have to wait around too long which was good! I may have had to make a 3rd stop to the bathroom otherwise! (Those who know me know about the nervous pees.) Before we knew it we met our instructors, both Mike's, who we'd be jumping tandem with, were set up in our harnesses, given our 3 minute tutorial on what to do, and were boarding the plane!

Being fit for our harnesses and getting our instructions

Ready to go!!

The plane ride itself was quite an experience! Sixe people cram into this little plane that has an entire side cut out!! Dave and I were attached to our instructors at the hips AND seat belted in but the guy who had to sit parallel with the opening wasn't! [Obviously only the experienced get that seat!] After getting over my fear of the "door guy" falling out of the plane I was surprisingly calm for the ride. Mike, kept showing me the altitude. The first time he showed me I was shocked that we were only at 3000 ft. I couldn't even wrap my mind around going up another 7500 ft. before jumping! So I had a good 15 minutes at ease and then at about 9000 ft. "door guy" started shifting around (making me nervous he was going to fall out again) and before I knew what was happening Mike and I were switching places with him. It felt like it took another 10 min. to get the 1500 ft. higher while I was crouched there in front of the gaping hole on the side of the plane waiting, starting to get REALLY nervous! Next thing I knew Mike was telling me, "Here we go, Nicole" and before he even finished the sentence we were free falling! It still makes my heart speed up when I think about that moment 2 days later. I wonder how long it will take before I lose that flutter when I think of it, I hope not for a long time! When I do that will just mean we have to go again soon.

Initially that first second that I was falling felt like chaos to me. I was braced for the worse and I had to make myself open my eyes because my initial reaction was to shut them tight. And once I did open them I was seeing clouds and had do a mental check that I was doing the couple things he told me were important to do - keeping my head back and feet up between his legs. And then I saw the ground and got to enjoy the ride! And how amazing it was! It wasn't until right before the parachute went up that I had as much of a grasp as I could have on how fast we were free falling. It's just incredible! Mike showed me how by pointing our arms we can change directions and fall faster. It was SO MUCH FUN! And then once the parachute went up (after the initial rag doll feeling I had of being jerked up) it was so peaceful just floating. Then Mike let me take the handles of the parachute and showed me how to use them to maneuver in the sky. We took a hard right and that made us do a spin in the air. And then he did it on the left and we did 3 spins and we were spinning so fast I felt like my head may explode so he stopped! Then we were just meandering around lining up to get to our landing spot. I really wished we could have stayed floating around longer, that part seemed to go by so quickly.

When I was in the parachute I could actually see Dave and his Mike above us. Dave's experience was completely different from mine of course especially because this was his 2nd time skydiving! He thought the free fall went too quickly but he was able to enjoy it more this time than he did the first. He said he felt like Superman! I felt the free fall was as long as they say; 40 sec. - don't get me wrong I enjoyed every second of it, well maybe every one except that first one! In that first moment of chaos I swear we flipped or tumbled or something along those lines and I was nervous I did something wrong when I was thrown out of the plane and Dave wouldn't believe me! Low and behold I found a few videos people had taken when they went skydiving with my instructor and in every one his exit is the same; he does a diving flip out the door so now I have the video(s) to prove it to him (because I had been wishing I had my own video to prove it!) And I can rest easy that I did exactly what I was supposed to do (which I guess should be pretty obvious considering we made it down with no problems!)

We both felt a little queasy after we landed. I thought I might lose my breakfast when we were still at 200 ft. lined up to land. I had a bit of a headache too (I'm sure from all the nerves). Once we had some food in our stomachs we were just fine! I think it was a combination of nerves and temperature. When we first left the plane it was 40 degrees, landing it was 88, mixed with the country smell of manure - that could turn even the strongest stomach!

We had such a great experience! All the instructors at Connecticut Parachutists, Inc. are awesome! I recommend everyone try it at least once! I guarantee you won't regret it! It's such an amazing experience that can't be summed up in any number of words! I can barely believe I liked it so much I want to do it again someday! Dave was always the one that wanted to go again and wanted me to try it and if it weren't for him I know I never would have so lucky for him that turned out to be a good thing! Even he was a little nervous I was going to say I hated it afterward (even though he was pretty confident I'd enjoy it.)

Thank you to Mike and Mike for being the most important men in our lives for those 15 minutes! You are 3/4 of the reason this adventure was so enjoyable!

Me with my instructor, Mike Hennesy

Dave with his instructor, Mike Haas

Almost...

For the last 3 days I've been eagerly anticipating going against every sane thought in my head and jumping out of a plane! And now I get to continue doing so for another FULL week!

Sunday morning Dave and I were supposed to go skydiving, Dave for the 2nd time (he had gone with his roommates when he was in college) and me for the 1st time ever!! [Technically we were supposed to go on Saturday morning but because of a computer glitch the reservation I made was lost in cyber-space and by time we realized any of this the day was already booked with 43 tandem jumpers and the people at Connecticut Parachutist's could only "do their best to squeeze us in" so it was suggested we pick another day.] It was an anniversary present (from 3 years ago) re-gifted into a 30th birthday present this year. So at this point there really was no getting out of it! So I watched the video a few times to get myself pumped for what we were going to do (after of course getting through the part about death, injury, and not being able to sue the company or anyone involved).

So Sunday morning we woke up at dawn to drive an hour to Ellington, CT for our big adventure. It was still pretty gloomy at 7am so we didn't think much of it as we were driving. But once we got out of the car in Ellington it was still grey and cloudy and when we signed in the woman warned us that no one was tandem jumping yet, they were waiting the weather out and it was up to us to make the call on how long we were willing to wait. We were still pretty optimistic at this point (as much as I would have probably been fine with turning around and going home) so we hung out and met some of the others that were in line ahead of us for tandem jumping. It was comforting for me to see others that were nearly as nervous as I was if not more so!

When we arrived

While we were waiting 2 people in line ahead of us were suited up and given the 2 minute lesson on the technique for jumping out of the plane so we continued to be optimistic about getting to jump. Meanwhile a plane had gone up with a group of licensed skydivers and it turned out the cloud ceiling was only at 4200 ft. (to legally tandem jump it has to be at least 4500 ft. and one of the certified jumpers said he wasn't comfortable jumping unless the ceiling was at least 7000 ft.). The 3 hours we waited there hopeful that the ceiling would burn off 2 other planes went up with licensed skydivers and the ceiling moved a little higher to 5000 ft. (on a nice day they get to 10,500 ft.) but rain was coming in from Springfield, MA so we decided to call it and make a reservation for the next weekend rather than (1.) not get the full experience or (2.) wait around another 3 hours.

It did not look like it was going to get any better to us, so we took a rain check

So now I get to try not to think about this for another week (which is nearly impossible) and pump myself up all over again - I'll probably end up watching that video at least another 100 times! I just know I'll regret it if I don't do it though, so I have no choice but to wait!

Me excited that we get to go home, JK - When we were still hopeful that we'd get to skydive