"Learning To Fly"

So I woke up today and decided to get some 'fresh air'.  Lo and behold, it turned out to be skydiving with a few of my buddies for a Bachelor Party!  Nothing like free-falling right before committing yourself to someone for the rest of your life.  So I know only Rob and Mom knew about this, but to be honest I purposely chose not to mention this crazy, yet so worth it, idea with not too many people so as to help me not think about it as much.  Because of this, I felt better prepared and was more excited than nervous.  So sorry if you felt left out.  But until we took off in the plane and the one guy opened the side door, that's when my excitement went away and my nerves started to kick in like CRAZY!  The pics tell the rest of the story, but to begin, we went to Mesquite, Nevada to jump and arrived there at about 8:30 am.  Training took about 30 minutes.  There were 10 of us and they could only take up 3 at a time.  Of course I, being the nice guy, take the heat and waited till the last jump of the day.  My partner in the sky, Brad, is the owner of the business and he helped me feel real safe!  He was very straight forward and informative about everything.  Usually I would say the anticipation was the worst of it all, but ultimately when we were at the edge of that door, ready to jump, MY HEART HAD NEVER BEEPED SO FAST AND SO HARD!!  We were about 13,000 feet when we jumped.  When we jumped, I could feel my organs rising up and then adjusting all within seconds.  Everything happened so fast that I had to stop thinking and just let things happen.  Once I knew what was going on, I could feel myself feeling at ease and less tensed up.  I quickly remembered what they told us in training - do a pelvic thrust, mold your body into a banana, hands out and feet bent together.  The last pictures of me free falling I couldn't breath for like 15 seconds and started to get nervous again.  But then Brad pulled the chute and BOING!  We were about 5,000 feet when he pulled the chute.  From there he taught me how to go left and right in the parachute.  That was a LOT of fun, just going left and right being able to control where you wanted to go, felt like flying.  Once we were close to the ground, Brad told me to raise my feet at a 90 degree angle and we just slid across the face of mother-earth with our bums.  Hopefully the pics add to the story, but if not, you need not worry.  I have a video of me jumping also.  My buddies and I are editing the footage and I'll post it soon.  So until then, ENJOY!

Before ending this post, I really have to end it with how awesomely beautiful this world is.  Being able to jump and then be caught with a parachute so gracefully really reminded me of how much our Heavenly Father loves us.  And also, to have witnessed first-hand the beauty of the earth while free-falling at about 150 mph is likewise, just another friendly reminder of how awesomely great our Heavenly Father is.  To create such a beautiful world for us to live in is indeed just another great example of His tremendous eternal love for us.  I love you all, family!