Adrenaline Junkie

Typically the adrenaline rushes that I get come from running or riding (or in the rare case swimming) past someone that I didn't think I would be able to in a race or finishing a killer training session, but this past month has been a little different.  I had two opportunities to get that adrenaline pumping in ways that I was not expecting.

 Just before Thanksgiving, my dad had been offered the opportunity to repel down the side of the Hilton out at the beach.  I thought it sounded pretty cool and I went out to take some pictures.  When I got there, he was all rigged up and had already gone through his practice runs on the parking garage.  he took the elevator up to the top of the building and I went to wait outside.  I watched him come down and walked into the hotel with him so he could take off all his gear.  While he was getting ready to go, the lady who was organizing the whole thing said that they were way ahead of schedule and asked if I wanted to fill one of the empty spots.  I jumped at the chance, I was so excited. 

The volunteers promptly set me up with a harness, ropes, carabeeners, and everything else I needed and took me out to the parking garage to practice.  There wasn't much to it and the garage was only one story high, so it wasn't long before I was 17 stories up ready to repel down the hotel.  I thought I might get a little nervous once I got to the top, but I really didn't.  We started by walking backwards down the roof, kneeling at the edge, and then leaning backwards until we fell off and started the descent.  It was so much fun and right on the beach, so there was a great view! I really enjoyed getting to share that experience with my dad. 

Matt wasn't there to witness that, he was at home and got a call from my dad telling him his wife was about to jump off a 17 story building :-), but the next crazy thing I did was all his doing.  Our 7th wedding anniversary is coming up this weekend, but I will be out of town, so we decided to celebrate early.  He told me he had something planned, but wouldn't tell me what.  We left the house at around 11:00 and I really had no clue where we were going.  After driving for about 40 minutes, he asked me if I knew where we were going, I didn't, and then he looked over at me and said "you're about to jump out of a plane." I was shocked, thought about it for a minute, then got pretty excited.  My parents have both been skydiving and I thought it would be cool to do, but I never dreamed that was what he had planned.

We got to the airport in Elberta, AL, checked in and started getting ready to go. Oh yeah, I do have to mention that I was a little nervous that he was sending me up to jump out of an airplane, but he was staying on the ground to "take pictures" :-). We had to watch the safety videos, sit through a short briefing of what was going to happen, and then we put on our jump suits and harnesses.  Since I had never done it before, I was jumping tandem (attached to an instructor).

When everyone was ready, we headed out to this rickety little airplane and climbed in.  It was pretty cramped and took us about 20 minutes to get to the altitude that we were to jump from.  When we reached 13,500 feet, the door opened and people started jumping out. We were the last to go and I really didn't get nervous until I was sitting on the edge about to jump.  We had decided earlier that we wanted to do flips as we jumped out, so I squatted down at the edge of the plane, pulling my knees to my chest, and then rolled out head first.  It was a rush like no other.  We free fell for about a minute which was incredible and then the parachute opened.  Once the parachute is open it's a pretty relaxed ride down.  The instructor let me hold onto the controls and we did a few spins which were cool, but made me a little nauseous.  I made it safely to the ground after a pretty smooth landing and told Matt that he has to try it, but he told me not to worry about returning the favor :-).

Surprise!!

This Thanksgiving me and Matt totally surprised my sisters and their families by showing up in Texas unexpectedly.  Originally I was planning on driving to Texas with my parents and Matt was going to wait and take time off at Christmas to go out there, but when my parents decided to fly, we didn't think I would be able to do that so I told my sisters I'd have to wait until Christmas to see them.  Not too long after that, my mom told me that she found out she had some frequent flier miles that we could use so we decided to go, but wanted to keep it a surprise.  It wasn't easy to keep the secret and it nearly slipped several times, I was so excited.  I had my sisters convinced that we were going to celebrate with Matt's family and even tried to play off how disappointed I was not to be able to spend the holiday with all of them and the kids :-).

Lindsey and Eli

We flew out of Pensacola on Wednesday morning, had a short layover in Dallas, and arrived in Killeen (about 30 mins from Devon's) at around 3:45.  When Devon and the kids got there to pick up my parents, they went out and greeted them while me and Matt waited for a few minutes inside.  Once they were distracted by my parents, me and Matt snuck up behind them. Devon was shocked and the kids were excited. The next day when Lindsey and her family arrived, she came outside to help my mom carry in her groceries and was pretty surprised to see me standing out by the car. 

Enjoying Thanksgiving dinner

On Thanksgiving we went to my Aunt Pam's house (we had told her we were coming) where they had over 20 people there for dinner.  There was a ton of food and it was all delicious! It was a little different not having to help cook all day, but it was fun to be able to just relax, hang out with everyone, and enjoy the day.  That night me and Devon waited in line at Toys R Us for about an hour and a half for some good Black Friday deals for the kids.  Once we were through there it was about 11:00 and I was exhausted. My crazy sisters went out to do more shopping, but I was ready for bed.  

Family dinner (just missing Kevin) while the guys watched the kids

Playing at the park





New Christmas pajamas

I got to stay for a whole week and Matt and my parents stayed from Wednesday until Sunday. We had such a fun trip and it was so good to see everyone.  I couldn't believe how much the kids had grown and how much older they all seemed since I last saw them this summer.  The twins are talking so well, Isaac is super smart, I was amazed at some of the things he understood and knew, and even little Eli is turning from a toddler into a little boy.  I also got to meet my newest nephew Carter Ames who was born October 10th.  He is adorable and the perfect baby, hardly ever cries, and sleeps really well which Devon is more than pleased about. I can't believe Thanksgiving is already over and Christmas season is in full swing. This year has flown by!