After listening to my brother Vince tell of his sky dive adventures since he first jumped from an airplane in 1969, I decided in April that I would like to jump too. I had him sign me up to jump when I returned to Dallas in July to watch Jackson and Grayson while Meaghan went to camp, and before I knew it we had a crowd--Ed, my sister Gail and her two sons, David and Jason--also signed on for sky dives. It was fun planning and anticipating the big day, but nothing compares to the actual event. It was one of the most incredible experiences I have ever had! With the exception of Vince, we all had to do tandem jumps from the Otter, a really cool bright yellow plane, also known as the flying school bus. Gail, Vince and I were on the same flight (they only put 2 tandems with their videographers on one plane) along with several single free fallers. We all crowded along the two long bench seats in the Otter and were told to buckle our seat belts. I thought that was a little ironic since we were all going jump out of the airplane anyway, but rules are rules. After my instructor Mark and I were securely attached, we scooted to the open doorway. He said "Ready, set...." and on "Go" he hurled us out the door, all at 13,500 ft. above Dallas.
There was never a feeling of falling, just a lot of wind coming at my face. We were in free fall for about 8,000 feet, and then he pulled the shute and we floated over the earth.
It was so peaceful, just looking around and having him point things out to me. I chattered all the way down, so I'm sure he was glad to get me unharnessed!
David and Jason went on the next flight after ours, and then Ed was on the one after that, also with Vince. Vince intended to catch up with me on the way down but did not anticipate that I would fly as fast as I did (129-131 mph) so he didn't have enough time to catch up. He was able to catch up with Ed, so they enjoyed that experience.
A note about Ed's instructor, Ernie: He is part of the World Team that set a world record sky dive of 400 people who jumped from 6 planes over Thailand in 2006 and connected to each other mid-air. They are currently in training to connect 650 people in 2012 (Go to YouTube and type in World Record Sky Dive for the awesome video of that event). It was really interesting to sit outside Vince's trailer at the Drop Zone listening to the experiences of a lot of sky divers. David has already signed up for AFF (free fall) classes, so hopefully, he will be doing solo flights. The rest of us are starting to talk about our next sky dives, so stay tuned.
but in the meantime, Jackson woke up at 6:15 saying, "Let's play bowling, Nana Jo!" So, of course...we played bowling.
As hard as this is at times, we will definitely miss these little critters next week.
Then we loaded up and went to the mall to play in the kids area awhile and, of course, we had to go the the Disney Store. Jackson knew exactly where it was, and believe me, we looked at EVERYTHING in the store at least twice. He only asked a couple of times if he could take something home but was ok when we just played with them there. Later, though, Grampa went back and got the Disney bowling set to play with at home. Then we had a hamburger for lunch at the food court and decided to ride the carousel. Jackson was thrilled with his horse ride, especially when it went so high up and ran so fast! 
After a good nap, we surprised him with the new bowling set and played with Grayson and his toys as well. It was a good day.
Playing at home has probably been the most fun. Jackson and I played a lot of Mr. Potato Head,
and also a game he invented called Doctor. He made me lie down on Grayson's blanket and then put his "friends" (Disney figurines) in my elbows, under my shirt, and between my toes to make me all better...all after sticking a Mr. Potato Head hand in my mouth and saying to me, "Now, don't talk or laugh." Very difficult orders to follow
This is Jackson with his "best" friend Reed. They share the same birthday and had a joint birthday party in April at Bounce U.
Sunday we went to church, out to eat BBQ at Rudy's with Meaghan's Special Needs Department, and then back to the house to help Meaghan and Michael get packed and ready to head to camp early Monday morning. It is a M.A.S.H. themed week, so there was lots of army stuff and camo. Meaghan & Nana Jo made posters for all the counselors and Jackson played cowboy with his Daddy's camp hat and Grayson's giraffe. He also tried on his mommy's heels. What a boy!
Watching a Tom & Jerry DVD with Nana Jo on the big bed.
Grayson & Jackson took a bath together and played with the stick on letters. This is G for Grayson
and J for Jackson
Here is Grayson sacked out early in the morning with his Mommy (who hid under the covers from the camera)
On Monday we just stayed home and played with the boys, trying to decide what we wanted to do for the remainder of the week.
It was a lot of fun being in the parade and seeing everyone lined up along the highway, but Linda said I should have been in the front because all she heard were kids hollering, "Hi, Mrs. Vinson." I didn't get any pictures of the actual parade (which lasted about 45 minutes) because I was too busy throwing candy to all the kids (and my students) along the highway. This is one time that there were definite traffic jams in town but nobody cared.
