My Birthday Present

I am officially a quarter of a century. Twenty five years old, as of yesterday. 

One of the things on my bucket list has always been to go skydiving, although I didn't picture it happening any time soon. Apparently Jordan had other plans... 

He surprised me and planned a skydiving trip for both of us for my birthday present! The place we went was about an hour outside of London, and needless to say, I was more than surprised. :) 

It was odd because neither of us were really that nervous while we waited our turn to go up in the plane. We both had qualified instructors hooked on to us who did all the work, which took so much pressure off of us. And not to mention, our guys who jumped with us were a full-blown two man circus! They were absolutely hilarious and were cracking jokes the entire time, which also helped a ton when we were riding in the plane.

We paid a little extra (okay, a LOT extra) to have pictures taken while we jumped... but we figured skydiving is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and we knew we'd regret it if we didn't get pictures! It's pretty crazy because they actually have a separate guy who jumps just to take photos. 

Here is the view from the plane window. Oh yeah, did I mention that we jumped from 12,000 feet?!

I was so proud of Jordan for doing this -- he is not very fond of heights! If you've followed the blog, you might remember the pictures from our first trip to the white cliffs of Dover of him and Johanna laying down on the ground to look over the edge. :)

It's pretty crazy because all of a sudden when we reached our jumping altitude, they rang a bell, flung opened the door, and started sending jumpers out so quickly! It was such a fast process that you don't even really have time to think about it. I'm thinking they probably plan it this way so people don't have time to back out. It honestly felt like I was watching a movie of people jumping out of a plane, it was so completely surreal! Ironically, Jordan jumped right before I did, and I have to admit, that was the craziest part for me -- seeing my husband hanging out of a plane, and then the next millisecond he was GONE.

I can't even describe how fast this all took place. And the next thing I knew, I was at the edge of the plane looking down at Jordan and the English countryside from 12,000 feet in the air. And let me tell you, Jord became a tiny dot real quickly!

My birthday present...

Here is Jordan and his tandem diver during the 30 second free fall. Check out this guy's helmet... hilarious! They told us that you are falling 200 feet per second, which is 1000 feet every five seconds.

I really can't even describe how it felt! I will say that it wasn't like I thought it was going to be or how it was going to feel. It's almost as if you're going so fast that it feels like you're not moving at all, and you're SO high in the air that you can't really grasp a stopping point, which makes you feel a little disoriented. And it's COLD!!! I told Jordan afterwards that it just felt like the ultimate sensory overload! 

At any rate, it was AMAZING, and unlike anything I have ever done in my whole life!

Once you free fall for 30 seconds, they pull the parachute, which I thought would be jerky and abrupt but it really wasn't. It takes about 4 or 5 minutes to reach the ground as you're gliding through the air. It was pretty cool when my tandem diver and I were parachuting down to the ground, he leaned in my ear and said, "Welcome to my office!" :) I can't even imagine doing something like this for a living! He told me he usually averages about ten jumps per day. Can you believe that?!

I was a little worried about landing back on the ground, but that was surprisingly really easy and smooth. Jordan and I both made it back safe and sound, and full of adrenaline!

I had perma-smile the entire time. Okay, it was partially perma-smile, and partially nervous laughter, which is an unusual reaction for me!

So now I guess I can check skydiving off my bucket list! It was definitely worth it, and I would do it again if we could justify it financially. :) To both of our surprise, Jordan actually felt the same way. Who would have thought?! 

We had two different camera men take our pictures (although we are both in each other's pictures)... so to see all of Jordan's skydiving pictures, click here. To see all of my pictures, click here.

The day before we went skydiving, Jordan and I and his parents and grandparents took a day trip to see the White Cliffs of Dover. We went there in February with Josh and Johanna, but we were more than happy to go again! We all ate lunch at a little cafe overlooking the harbor, and then Jordan, Russ, Brenda, and I hiked along the cliffs. It was such a beautiful day!

Russ and Brenda were troopers! The hike is probably 3 miles or so, but the view of the cliffs and the lighthouse at the end is totally worth it.

Again, I can't even describe how breathtakingly beautiful and white the cliffs really are. It is unbelievable, and pictures don't even do it justice. Just so you know, the body of water in the pictures is the English Channel and you can actually see France way off in the distance on the other side.

Here is Jordan, overlooking the cliffs and the harbor.

We had to strip off our layers because it was so hot out... I am not complaining, trust me! Jordan and I have totally fallen in love with Dover, and decided it is one of our favorite places we've been so far.

Jordan is taking his last final today, and it is actually his parents' and grandparents' last full day here as well. They fly out tomorrow afternoon. 

And Jordan and I actually fly out tomorrow morning to mark the beginning of his 2-week spring break! We fly to Dublin and will be in Ireland for 3 days, then we head to Scotland to visit Edinburgh and St. Andrews, where Jordan will be able to check another event off his bucket list and go golfing at the famous "old course" there. He is so excited, he can hardly stand it! We've decided once we get back to the states at the end of May, we will have to rewrite our bucket lists since we are checking so many things off of them lately. :)

We fly back to London late Sunday night, where we will meet my sister, and then we are all flying out early Monday morning to spend the week traveling between Venice, Rome, and Athens. We are both so excited to see my sister, and the best part is, she gets to stay in London for a whole week after we get back from our week long trip in Italy and Greece -- so a total of 2 weeks! Needless to say, I am going to have a lot of catching up to do on the blog when we get back in two weeks... so stay tuned. :)