"Yeah I'm free, free fallin'"

We heard this song on the way to skydiving--Nate thought it was quite appropriate.

For Christmas, I thought it would be fun to get Nate a skydiving gift certificate. It is kind of hard for him being in Texas, away from the mountains that he loves, so I thought this would be a fun outdoors activity for him to do. When I told my parents about it, they thought it was a great idea and asked if I wanted to go, too (they would pay!). At first I freaked out saying there is no way, but then I gradually warmed up to the idea. So, we bought two gift certificates for tandem skydiving. Right after Christmas I found out I was pregnant--dang. (But in a good way.) So I couldn't go skydiving, and the gift certificates were only good for 6 months. When Andy found out what I got Nate for Christmas, he thought that would be so fun and would have loved that as a present. So Andy came down from Utah and took my place. We thought it was a good idea two weeks before he goes on his mission--he's got angels with him, right?

The weather the day before the scheduled flight was very stormy, and on Saturday the clouds were still trying to clear out. So we were really nervous that they wouldn't be able to go at all. And then we saw how tiny and old the planes were, and that made us even more nervous. Then I was introduced to the pilot, who looked like he was...older than retirement age, and that made me even more nervous. But honestly, the thought that they wouldn't be able to go was worst of all.
Mackay loved sitting in the planes. The scheduled sky dive was at 11:00, but because of weather, (and a very flirtatious owner to other girls that were SUPPOSED to sky dive after us), they weren't able to go until 2:00. So we had lots of sitting around to do.
I thought this was funny on the plane. I can't imagine that first feeling of looking out of the airplane and the ground far, far below.
Even though I really wasn't too nervous, I got a lot of "last pictures" of Nate and Andy with Mackay--just in case. Unfortunately, Mackay was getting over an ear infection, and wasn't a bundle of joy most of Andy's stay.

I was taking pictures of Andy learning how to jump out of a plane at 10,500 feet when Nate jumped in the way. That's okay, he was excited.
Last of the last pictures.
While we were waiting for them to come back, Mackay loved trying to wear Andy's hat. Unfortunately it was a little big on her, and she soon gave up.

Here is a picture of the inside of the plane. We were surprised at how small the planes were. In all the movies everyone is sitting comfortably on benches lining the plane--but oh no. I'm pretty sure only one person could sit comfortably on the floor behind the pilot's seat, but they crammed 4 grown men. They said that they had to crouch down on their feet because there wasn't room to really sit down. Andy was afraid that he had broken his ankle. When the boys got down they told me that when one of the instructors was trying to stand up he was having trouble, so the pilot jolted the plane really quickly to aid in him standing up. They were afraid to lose the pizza we had just eaten. Luckily everything turned out alright.

First sight of Andy and Nate. My camera is zoomed in as far as it can go.
Andy coming in. I guess they were supposed to jump close to the same time, but Nate was surprised at how difficult it was to actually jump out of the plane because of the speed. So he was a ways behind.
I don't think I've ever seen Andy smile as big as he was after he landed.
Here comes Nate! They were going so fast, that I had to turn my focus onto manual, and it was difficult to get them very clear. Nate insisted on wearing the orange suit, even if it was a little small.
The precision that they land with is incredible. They landed right on Andy's parachute.
Nate's ears hurt and he couldn't hear very well for a while after he got back onto land.
And another thing that is unfortunate: my camera has previously had an ISO setting extremely high for a low light situation. I had my shutter speed at 1/4000, and wondered why it was so high. I didn't realize my error until I got home, so I got a lot of overexposed, grainy pictures. I guess we'll have to do it again.
Nate was surprised at the lack of adrenalin that he experienced while skydiving. And I am surprised at how calm I felt letting them go. They both said that they would do it again, since the second time they would be able to enjoy it more and not be trying to remember everything they were supposed to do. Andy said he forgot to hold his legs up, so they were flopping all around kicking his instructor. So the other guy grabbed his legs and held them really tight in between his. So it's not like they remembered much anyway.

I am planning on going after Baby Boy Barker is born, and my mom casually said she would go with me--so I'm holding her to it.