Gerrit Puts His Knees in the Breeze

Gerrit during his freefall from 14,000 feet.

Since a lot of our Christmas this year revolved around things at our house, it didn't seem fair to make Gerrit share all of them and then head back to school. We needed something that was just for him.. For years now one of Gerrit's dreams has been to try skydiving, and since Dave's flying puts in touch with a community of people who know about such things, we decided to find out if it was possible. Turns out it was not only possible, it was almost convenient! So, a few days after celebrating Christmas the whole family headed down to the airport in Cullman, Alabama.

The weather was spectacular, which was a relief since both the day prior and the day afterwards ended up being yucky, but Gerrit's day was perfect. After watching a quick instructional video, Gerrit was teamed up with an experienced diver from SkyDive Alabama and he got all suited up. We got a chance to watch two or three other groups come down before Gerrit's turn. In each group there were some tandum "first-timers" and several experienced parachuters. Finally it was Gerrit's turn and we watched as the airplane carried him up to over 14,000 feet.

He was just a speck against the blue sky when he first exited the airplane, but we had arranged for someone to video the whole thing from up in the air, so we all got to share the whole ride down later at home. After what seemed like an eternity, we saw the chute open and followed his progress all the way down to the landing. It was probably as much fun for us watching as it was for him doing it! Well, almost :-) Tucker has already decided that's what he wants for Christmas next year!