SKYDIVING IN THE ALPS!

WE'RE ABOUT TO FLY THROUGH THE AIR..LIKE THIS!

These were the girls I jumped with!
The whole group!

Well, this was probably the best weekend of my life! I, Kasey Musgrave--little miss play it safe, scared of glass elevators, rollercoasters, heights in general, JUMPED OUT OF A PLANE AT 14,000 FEET! AH! okay, I'll rewind a little bit.

Wednesday night, one of our guy frinds, Zach, came in to try to convince Austin to go with them, and somehow I got into the picture because I said once that it would be amazing. So then he tried to get both of us to go, and being the people pleaser I am...i finally said yes! (picture me laying in bed under my blanket shaking terribly out of fright of what I had just commited myself to!) I had said at one point that it would be amazing to do this because I would watch our friend's videos...but yeah right! Like I would ever do it! And don't worry, it was not out of people pleasing that I said yes, I was totally committed to proving to myself that I could, and I know I would regret it if I never did it. So as we ran to tell our friend Natalie we were going with them I continued shaking...for a good hour! I was the source of entertainment for my friends because as we watched everyone else's skydiving dvd's I sat there curled up. shaking. haha It was quite a sight I'm sure.

Moving on, the next day consisted of me calling dad and telling him, getting permission, and making sure my very worrisome mother didn't find out until AFTER I jumped and was safe! Some people saw my secret as a horrible thing to put my dad through, but if you know my mom...we new what we were doing!

Okay, so finally Saturday came! Our group of 6 woke up and left for the GORGEOUS Interlaken, Switzerland. After a 4 1/2 hour train ride we had arrived! I tried to eat a blueberry muffin, but that didnt' go over so well...so I decided to keep the food to a minimum for the sake of my stomach! We ate a little bit of pasta just to keep us from getting hunger pains, and then we were picked up my Skydive Switzerland and transported to the air strip. I was super nervous, but at the same time I knew there was no turning back..that was actually never even a thought in my mind even with nerves! Everything happened really quickly once we arrived at the hanger. There was a group of about 20 of us tandem jumping, and we went through about a 5 minute breifing on what to do! Thats all! haha thank goodness we didn't have too much responsibility! We split up into groups of 3 because that's all that can fit in the plane. The other half of our group was first, and they were probably up in the air about 30 minutes after we got there! CRAZY! So they went up, jumped, landed, and loved it! At this time I wasn't nervous at all! I was SOO ready to do it! My group had to wait about 2 hours before we could jump, but I never really got too nervous!

FINALLY, it was our turn! We got strapped in our harnesses very quickly, and took off to the plane! Oh! did i mention...Interlaken Switzerland was covered in SNOW!!!! EVERYWHERE! They said this was the best day to jump in a long time, and the snow had only been there for 3 days! It was incredible from the ground...I couldn't wait to see it from above! So, we trek across the landing strip of SNOW to our plane. The propellers were going: It was so loud and windy as we all piled in. The jumper I was going to be attatched to said that we were last in first out! So we climbed in last...my spot on the ground was parallel with the sliding door. I don't know how we all fit in this tiny space, but we scrunched in! It took us about 15 minutes to make it up to 14000 feet. Finally, we were there! My jumper explained that he would open the door, look out, then open it completely, then the camera guy would jump out onto the wing, and I would slide around and hang my feet over...I would get in position, and then one, two, three, JUMP!

So door opens, and all goes as planned. I completely got FREAKED OUT when the door opened and we hovered over NOTHING! I was soo scared, but the fact that I couldn't do anything about it helped me just say WHATEVER LETS DO IT! I am sitting with my head back, arms on my straps, arched back, and he yells HERE, WE, GO! and on go we fall foward! (crazy thing is i've lost my stomach about 3 times just whie typing this!) I screamed as we flipped out, and honestly I don't remember what happened until I reached a stabilized position of free-falling on my stomach! As soon as I saw land I was perfectly fine! It's the hardest feeling to describe: I lost my stomach a little bit jumping, but from then on it just felt so natural! It was INCREDIBLE!

We free-fell for 41 seconds, and then he pulled the chutte. Apparently that pulls you up incredibly fast, but after some major jerks you just feel like your sitting still in the air. It was crazy! I felt a little light-headed at this point, but it went away very quickly..what a rush! We did spirals down which did more for my stomach than even jumping out of the plane! The view was UNBELEIVABLE! Everything was snow-covered, the sun was out, no clouds! It was perfect! It was actually FREEEZING, but it never bothered me at all...who can complain about freezing wind when your falling from a plane? Not me! Then he tapped my shoulder and i raised my legs into a pike position as we landed. This consisted of going like straight down towards the ground and sliding into the foot of SNOW! It was CRAZY! We were all going crazy hugging and screaming! It was seriously the BEST experience of my life...so rewarding!

So, now I can say I've been skydiving over the Swiss Alps! I have thought about it all day today, and wish I could do it again! I can't wait to get my DVD so I can see myself doing it, because I still can't beleive it! One of my friends who did it a few weeks ago watches his dvd at least once a day! This was definitely one of those life-changing, defining moments in my life. I'm so thankful that all went well. Our group was so amazing! On the train ride that morning we read some scriptures just to ensure us that we were going to be okay! It was so nice to experience God's beauty with 5 other people who are as enthralled as you! I'm so thankful for a safe day!

Well, all is well. Mother knows and continuously thanks me for not telling her! It was seriously the BEST day EVER! I'm still in shock, and it makes me SO happy to just think about it! Just as everyone said, it has definitely changed my outlook on things. I mean afterall, jumping out of a plane puts other fears into perspective. So basically, I LOVED IT! YAY for skydiving!

sorry this was so long, and i'm sorry to those of yall who read this and then have to hear it all again from me in a few weeks...i'm pretty sure it'll still be all I can talk about:)

have a blessed day!