You Want What for your Birthday?!?!

Now, I know you all have been reading about Indy's birthday surprises, but now you get to find out what we as a family gave to Indy for her birthday. We presented it in the theme of 18 items for 18 years. So, here's the scoop, I searched the internet for a picture that would depict Indy's present and then cut out the persons face and replaced it with Indy's. It is not the best "Photoshop", but it gets the point across. Then I printed out the picture and pasted it on the inside of the card.





The wrapped package contained 18 of these:




The date was October 11, 2008. I had decided to jump with Indy. Chrissie cannot handle the rapid pressure changes, so she elected to hang with us and watch from the ground and take pictures. We left at 8:00 in the morning for Rockmart, Georgia. We arrived at "The Farm" at 1pm and got signed up. There were 25 divers ahead of us, the first load of the day was already up in the air, so we got to see them land. The drop zone is at the farm where everyone hangs out. When it is your turn, they bus you about 10 minutes to the small airport nearby. By the time the first load landed, they had announced a wind hold for all tandem jumpers until further notice.

This provided us with some excess time. Chris and Indy started up a conversation with one of the videographers and pre-arranged to have him, DZ Chad, and Big Steve, be her dive guides. Both were really cool and were excited to help Indy have a great dive.

After a load of certified divers went up during the wind hold, they started up the tandem jumps again. We were scheduled for the third load. As the second load was up in the air, a huge wall of clouds rolled in. This could ground all jumps if there is no viewpoints through the clouds. Most likely, if it remained, Indy and I would not be able to jump. Chrissie suggested we pray very hard that they would move out, because the prospect of a four hour drive back home and then reschedule would be a real bummer.

As it turned out, while we were getting all geared up for our jump, all the clouds disappeared and it was pure blue sky, the sun was close to setting, and it made for an excellent visual experience. We left "The Farm" at about 6pm est for the airport. And thus, "The Ride of our Lives" began....