So as we share more about our lives with you on the new series of “Personal” blog posts, we figured we’d start with our most extreme adventure – that time we fell from the sky. Yep – skydiving! Two years ago we had a very rare Saturday in June open up – it just happened to be our 7-year anniversary weekend. When we met with Natalie and Josh about booking their wedding, we found out that Josh was planning his second skydive and he asked us if we’d like to join in. To his surprise, we gave an enthusiastic YES, and so began the planning.
We traveled to Chattanooga for the weekend with this fun-loving couple, and nervously (ok maybe I was the only nervous one) chatted about falling 12,000 feet and how we WEREN’T going to tell Brandon’s mom until AFTER we landed safely on the ground. Otherwise we wouldn’t be here telling this story 🙂 We got up early Saturday morning, and rushed to Jasper to the airport. There was no time for coffee, which coincidentally wasn’t necessary because, well, adrenaline. And after filling out the paperwork, we were strapped up and given a 2-sentence “lesson” about being thrown from a plane. (I honestly expected much more in the way of instruction, but then again if they talked too much, people may not get on the plane.)
Strapped to our instructors, we loaded up in the tiniest aircraft, that was LITERALLY taped with duct tape. (I still have a small piece that I took as a souvenir – probably not the smartest of moves to remove the tape that may have been holding the plane together, but it is what it is.) Once we reached altitude, they opened the door and my brain went into silent freak out mode. “We are in a plane IN THE SKY, held together with duct tape, and the DOOR.JUST.OPENED.” By the time I could process it, my instructor – er… parachute puller, was having me move toward the window. And before I knew it, we were gone. Out into the open air, high above the Sequatchie Valley, we flew (ok we fell, but whatever). What was probably a 2-3 minute total trip down will be remembered for a lifetime. Brandon he actually had the wherewithal to make hilarious faces and hand motions for the video. Of course he did.
Josh came down right after as Natalie was safe on the ground taking photos and video as we came in for the landing. It was definitely something we’ll never forget. And because a blog post isn’t complete without photos, here are some snaps from our awesome instructors who tossed us out of an airplane and made sure we lived to tell about it. We highly recommend the fellas at Chattanooga Skydiving Company and are thankful they’re so good at their job 🙂
