Girls Trip Summer 2009

My friend Julie and I were in need of a break so we decided to plan a trip, just the two of us. We decided on Boulder, Colorado and decided we wanted to go river rafting and skydiving, but we did not tell anyone we were going skydiving. You see, Mike told Julie that there was no way that she could get me to go skydiving. And well, Julie loves a challenge. So we thought it would be fun to just go do it, and tell everyone after.

So we left for Boulder on Thursday, July 30th and after checking in to our hotel we went to dinner at Pasta Jay's on Pearl Street and then walked up and down Pearl Street (the main attraction for tourists in Boulder, which aren't many). We saw many tree huggers, and more people with dreds than without. What a great place to people watch.

The next day was river rafting with the friendly, funny people at Mountain Whitewater Descents. We had such a great time, and rode down the river with some fun people. Plus, our guide also happened to be the owner of the company. He was great! And even gave us our pictures of the whole trip for FREE! Mike's favorite word! Then we headed back to the hotel to get showered and such. Then we hit the local outlet mall and some other place (similar to Jordan Landing) for dinner and more shopping and a movie.

Saturday, the dreaded day of skydiving. I had been dreading this day for two months now and was excited and scared all rolled into one. I even checked the sky right after waking up to see what the weather was like. Sunny and clear. There was no way they would cancel it. So we headed to the little airport where Mile Hi Skydiving is located. Just as we pulled up, we saw people attached to parachutes floating towards the ground. I got a little more nervous. We filled out the five page paperwork and paid our money. No turning back now. Can't waste money when you're married to Mike Dawes. We got our jumpsuits on and then our harnesses. And waited for our names to be called. They were called much more quickly than I thought they would be. I met my jumpmaster/tandem partner and my videographer/photographer (yes we documented this moment, who knows, I may not have made it). We walked right over to the trailer they use to shuttle people back and forth from the plane. Then before we knew it, we were walking over to the plane. Onto the plane. And it started down the runway. We were only about 1,000 feet in the air when someone opened the door. I immediately asked why the door was opened already. One of the jumpmasters said that it gets hot in the plane and that is how they cool it off. I was still nervous because I happened to be sitting right next to it. Well, we reached the appropriate elevation (about 12,500 ft.) and the first girl with her jumpmaster walked over to the door, and a split second later had jumped out and were falling through the sky. This is the moment I really freaked! I yelled out, "I can't do this!" My jumpmaster said, "yes you can, stand up." So up I stood, following his commands, we walked over to the door and all of a sudden it was our turn to fall through the sky. It doesn't feel like you are falling, it feels like floating. You are up so high that the ground doesn't look like it is coming at you. We fell for about a minute, and then the rip cord was pulled releasing the parachute, which opened (thank you). Then it was the most amazing feeling. It is the most quiet you have ever heard (or not heard?) I was so busy looking at the mountains and Denver way off in the distance that I still didn't notice the ground coming up. A few minutes later I was told to lift up my legs because we were going to slide in on our butts. We did and it was a soft landing. My camera guy came running over to us and asked me some more questions for my video. I basically said, "it was awesome!" And "I would totally do it again!" Also, "it was amazing, amazing!!" This is the craziest thing I've ever done in my life and I would totally do it again! Every time I hear a small plane overhead I get all excited again.

So after skydiving, we went and got massages. We deserved it. Got some dinner at Pasta Jay's again (we loved it, what can I say?). And walked down Pearl Street some more.

The next day was packing up and checking out and driving home. We were so sad to leave Boulder and get back to reality, but we did miss our children and our husbands (who were so awesome and took care of the kids while we were gone without incident, thanks guys).

What an awesome trip and a great experience. We are already talking about what we want to do next year!

(for some reason my computer won't read my cd's with all the pics on them, so I will post them later, sorry about that)