Why Walk When You Can Fly
This year has been CraZY! Kids moving in, kids moving out, jobs, volunteering & just life, in general, has made this year fly. We did take some time out this Christmas to go visit my brother & his family in Tampa. Every time we go down there I have to remind myself that if Cotton wants to engage in high-risk behavior I will go & have fun & think about potential consequences later. Cotton has a history of having us do dangerous activities.
What are some of those you might ask? Well, I'm glad you did. Canoeing with alligators, hang-gliding, trapeze lessons, and paddleboarding (potentially with sharks). The main thing missing from this list is skydiving. We knew there was a high probability Cotton would book us all tandem jumps for Christmas. I accepted it, because what am I supposed to do, let my kids go & me not? I don't think so. In the car, we were all in agreement Cotton was going to tell us we were skydiving.
Saturday we went to the Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City, Florida. If you are ever in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area, you have to go! Order the 1905 salad, because it is just delicious. I had it as my main course. Yes, it is THAT good. We also watched the Flamingo dancers. Again, don't miss it. (they don't perform on Sundays) So talented. Sorry, rabbit trail.
OK, we're at the table & Cotton hands us all envelopes. We know what's in them because there is very little he does now that surprises us. When we open them, there is just a picture...great...
The 3 Nance children who were present were super excited. Yep, it's a guy skydiving. I immediately begin thinking that I can do this. What normal person wouldn't jump out of a perfectly good airplane? Cotton was a little disappointed that Hopson & I didn't freak out. He had a whole spheel to give us that he had practiced. Ha! At least I'm a little unpredictable. What we found out was, we were not going skydiving outside, but we're going to an indoor skydiving facility called iFly. Whew! Not having the ground rushing up towards me was a huge relief.
Can I tell you how much fun we had? We had to sign our lives away, take a brief safety course, and learn how to properly hold our bodies & learn all the hand signals, all before we flew. Even Cotton's almost 7 & 4-year olds flew. We each had 2 1-minute 'jumps' in the wind tunnel. At first, I thought one minute was no big deal. Yeah, I was wrong & I was sweating. It's harder than it looks. You're working with the air to hover & you can't muscle your way into it.
Our instructor was patient & so fun. In his demo he did for us at the end of our time, he was doing some cool tricks! Cotton also got us all a 'High Flight'. The instructor takes you up & down inside the wind tunnel. You end up going up around 25 feet. It's a rush. I included the video of me flying. You will see Elizabeth first & then I come in, hover & then high fly.
I found out iFly has a STEM program. Can you say F.I.E.L.D. T.R.I.P.? I emailed the principal that I volunteer as tribute. HaHa! Seriously though, you have major science & math going on in the tunnel. So cool! It was a fun start to our Christmas vacay. How can it not be when family and fun is involved.
Today is Christmas & it was a quiet day. No more littles waking up at the crack of dawn wanting to see what Santa left. Just a bunch of college kids & a high school sophomore. Easy peasy, but I miss the craziness of Christmas morning. We shared Hoppy this year with his girlfriend's family, so we were down a child. It is an indication of what will be happening for years to come & I am choosing to be ok with it. It is life & life is worth celebrating every day!
Merry Christmas & loving to fly!
~ashley
What are some of those you might ask? Well, I'm glad you did. Canoeing with alligators, hang-gliding, trapeze lessons, and paddleboarding (potentially with sharks). The main thing missing from this list is skydiving. We knew there was a high probability Cotton would book us all tandem jumps for Christmas. I accepted it, because what am I supposed to do, let my kids go & me not? I don't think so. In the car, we were all in agreement Cotton was going to tell us we were skydiving.
Saturday we went to the Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City, Florida. If you are ever in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area, you have to go! Order the 1905 salad, because it is just delicious. I had it as my main course. Yes, it is THAT good. We also watched the Flamingo dancers. Again, don't miss it. (they don't perform on Sundays) So talented. Sorry, rabbit trail.
OK, we're at the table & Cotton hands us all envelopes. We know what's in them because there is very little he does now that surprises us. When we open them, there is just a picture...great...
Can I tell you how much fun we had? We had to sign our lives away, take a brief safety course, and learn how to properly hold our bodies & learn all the hand signals, all before we flew. Even Cotton's almost 7 & 4-year olds flew. We each had 2 1-minute 'jumps' in the wind tunnel. At first, I thought one minute was no big deal. Yeah, I was wrong & I was sweating. It's harder than it looks. You're working with the air to hover & you can't muscle your way into it.
Our instructor was patient & so fun. In his demo he did for us at the end of our time, he was doing some cool tricks! Cotton also got us all a 'High Flight'. The instructor takes you up & down inside the wind tunnel. You end up going up around 25 feet. It's a rush. I included the video of me flying. You will see Elizabeth first & then I come in, hover & then high fly.
I found out iFly has a STEM program. Can you say F.I.E.L.D. T.R.I.P.? I emailed the principal that I volunteer as tribute. HaHa! Seriously though, you have major science & math going on in the tunnel. So cool! It was a fun start to our Christmas vacay. How can it not be when family and fun is involved.
Today is Christmas & it was a quiet day. No more littles waking up at the crack of dawn wanting to see what Santa left. Just a bunch of college kids & a high school sophomore. Easy peasy, but I miss the craziness of Christmas morning. We shared Hoppy this year with his girlfriend's family, so we were down a child. It is an indication of what will be happening for years to come & I am choosing to be ok with it. It is life & life is worth celebrating every day!
Merry Christmas & loving to fly!
~ashley
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