47. Parents FLYING Texas!

My very first memories in life are flying co-pilot for my dad, standing on the ladder to open the hanger door, my mom enthusiastically packing our family up for plane trips. My first skydive skydive 10 years ago? A tandem with my dad, the second with my sister.

10 years later, I had never jumped together with my dad. After me arriving to Texas in February, my parents (as usual ;) were set on me building the strong bones in this place by myself and decided to come visit in end of June. By that time I did feel settled-ish here and felt excited to show them my new home. Originally not knowing anyone in Texas, it was a huge sense of relief and comfort to see them walk off that plane in Houston.

I feel incredibly grateful for the number of skydives I can think of as my all-time favorite, remember the rest of my life, take my breath away to remember. This experience was definitely one of those! I have dreampt up plenty of dreams in skydiving but this was one I had since day 1 of AFF.

The thrill, joy, happiness and bliss I felt on that skydive really has no words- it's best to just show in pictures. My mom joined in my flying co-pilot and watching us jump out. My AFF boss, Hank, asked to be the tandem instructor and my co-worker Greg flew outside video. We were all laughing for at least an hour, definitely making a scene in the hanger and plane ;)

They generously hung out at the dropzone 3 days, truly wanting to understand and connect with my world there. My favorite memory of that was teaching them the plane climb out for an AFF dive flow 1- something they would never do yet made my heart race with a feeling of protecting them even just mocking it up. Everyone at the dz was incredibly welcoming to them, giving them a sense of relief to know I was in a good place for the summer.

We stayed at an Airbnb downtown, explored Houston, exercised, ate delicious meals, cooked together and then spent the last night on my ranch. Having them part of my world here refreshed me and added a comfort to Houston.

I so respect them for what they have been through with me on this adventure. To simplify into a sentence, they supported me leaving my great life in San Diego to travel, often had no idea where in the world I was, couldn't communicate with me, welcomed the new people in my life, have worked to believe all this skydiving is safe and have seen a lot of the lows and highs through it all. I respect how their at-times tough-love makes me always stay strong and their visit at the right time to give some extra love.

THANK YOU Mom and Dad and thank you to everyone at Spaceland who welcomed them. Until the next jump together, love always <3

P.S. I LOVE the videos of all of this- some day I will get good at making videos and put them all together.