Diving through life... I'd rather dive through the sky!

I have always been a bit of a dare devil. I like the rush that doing something dangerous gives me. The thought of "this will probably end fine... but what if it doesn't?!". It is all exhilarating, and I love it! My family members aren't really risk takers, so growing up we did a lot of white water rafting and snow skiing because it was the most risk the others would take. Two years ago I found my adventure group, or the adrenaline junkies as we like to call ourselves, and we've been doing fun and risky stuff ever since!

The group is comprised of five key people: Chelsey Elliot, Amy Burns, Kat Ball, Lauren Goss, and myself. Other people join in some of the activities, depending on what they are, but the five of us are pretty consistent. We have done some pretty fun things the last two years like white water rafting down the Ocoee... twice, taking a day trip to Six Flag to ride all the roller coasters, running races, roughin' it at Bonnaroo, concerts, dumpster diving, water skiing, tubing and much more.

Our most recent thrill... SKYDIVING!

Chelsey thinks she is a princess, so every July she has a birthday week, not a birthday, but a whole week dedicated to her day of birth. As ridiculous as this is, we don't mind because it is our excuse to do crazy things and blame any bad results on her birthday week! This year Chelsey decided she wanted to go skydiving. Skydiving is a thing that is on most people's bucket list, so we figured bring it on!

We found a Groupon that made Skydiving 50% off, so we all went ahead and bought it even though it was months in advance. July rolled around and we made our reservation for eight am on Sunday, July 22! It was in Waverly, TN so we made the two hour drive there late on Saturday night and stayed in a hotel. We woke up early Sunday morning, got ready, packed up, and drove to the airport in Waverly! Lots of paperwork was filled out, rightly so... we were about to jump out of a plane, safety videos were watched, gear was put on, and then we were ready!

We had six people in our group, the adrenaline junkies and Mike(Chelsey's stepdad), so we had to be split up into two groups of three. The first group was Amy, Lauren and Kat. They went up 10 minutes before we did and made the dive! Lauren went first because she said if she didn't, she would be too scared after seeing someone else jump. Amy went second... with tears streaming down her face and finally, Kat ended the first groups turn. They all went and made it down perfectly fine, and they all loved it!

Amy giving a thumbs up from 13,000 feet in the air!

It was time for Mike, Chelsey and myself to get on the plane and head 14,000 feet into the sky! We had decided before loading the plane that Mike would jump first, I would jump second, and Chelsey would close us out. On the way up I realized that Mike was seated in the very back of the plane, which meant I would be going first, Chelsey would follow me, and Mike would close us out! We were the group that wasn't really nervous. I never really had a nervous moment, even seconds before we jumped I was excited, not nervous! Mike seemed calm right before I jumped, but Chelsey had a little moment of panic seeing me get up and ready! We all jumped and landed minutes apart on the ground!

Right after I jumped!

Thumbs up at 13,000 feet in the air!

Seconds before I landed!

Chelsey and her "I'm crazy" face 13,000 feet up!

Chelsey and her "ya I just did that" face after she landed!

Mike 13,000 up!

Mike thanking his guide after landing!

The experience was absolutely amazing! We got to soar through clouds where you could feel the moisture on your skin. We did full circles in the sky. Everyone free falls for 1 minute before the parachute is pulled, but it feel like you are free falling forever!! Once the parachute is pulled, you get to relax and take in all of the amazing views around you. I'm not exactly sure how long it took us to float down, but it felt like maybe 5 minutes. I would advise anyone to go skydiving if they can! I would do it again in a heartbeat! Once your feet are back on the ground, you feel a sense of accomplishment and it's very empowering!

Sibling Love

Anyone who has siblings knows how the relationships go! Sometimes they annoy you so badly you want to smack them, while other times they are like a best friend to you. Regardless of how you feel towards them, on any given day, you love them. I have been blessed beyond belief with my relationship with my siblings. For those that don't know, I am the oldest child in my family. I have my brother, Taylor, who is three years younger than me, and my sister, Katie, who is six year younger than me.

Our whole family is blessed with incredible talents... all of which are completely different. I am the athletic and sporty child. Any sport that can be played, I played at some point in my life. Taylor and Katie both dabbled around with different sports, but realized at young ages that it wasn't their thing. Taylor found his niche with singing and acting when he was around nine or ten. He started taking voice lessons and acting in some community theaters and really developed his skills throughout the years.

Taylor moved from doing small plays to acting in commercials and actually getting paid for his talent. He tried out for some small movies here and there, but never had any luck; so he decided to concentrate on music. He began writing his own songs, not really thinking anything would come of what he scribbled down. As he got older, the number of songs he wrote got bigger and bigger, and in my opinion, the quality of the songs got better as well. He graduated high school and went to the University of North Texas on a music scholarship. Once he had been there for a semester, he decided he didn't want to major in music, which would cause him to lose his scholarship. He transferred back to the University of Memphis and began living back at our parents house.

Taylor and my mom decided it was time to start getting some of his original songs finished and recorded. So that is what they worked on. He made sure he had a good number of his original songs finished, and they headed into the recording studio to get them recorded! Now that the recording process is just about finished, he has a CD with nine songs on it, three or four of which are his originals!!! His CD will be finished really soon, and his songs will even be for sale on Itunes! Check him out on facebook here or on youtube here!

Video create for the following videos goes to Josh Taylor, who recorded and edited them!

Taylor in the studio recording his original song "Sundress"

Taylor and his friend, Lauren, singing the cover song "Girl from Ipanema"

Katie found her talent and passion for photography while she was in middle school. We had a family digital camera that she started out taking random pictures on; then she graduated to using our mom's Nikon and really started to concentrate on photography. Her skills developed so quickly that it's hard to keep up! 

She started out taking most of her pictures of flowers and different objects. She mastered those photography elements very quickly and wanted to start getting into portraits. She came to visit me in Murfreesboro, so I set up a day where we could walk around MTSU and she could take pictures of anything she wanted; and I would be her model! I also made sure she had time to take some portraits of Aiden, a friends son! 

Needless to say, the pictures turned out amazing. When Katie started high school, she had many opportunities to take classes that were about photography. She was also blessed to have our grandparents buy her a Nikon camera and our parents buy her a few different lens for it! She has been able to go to some photography seminars and even have some internships where she gets to use her photography skills! She has been able to experience many different types of photography, and it has helped her learn many things.

Katie is about to be a Junior in high school, but her pictures would make you think she is a professional. She is lucky to have many family members and friends who LOVE having their pictures taken, so she gets lots of practice and uses the photos she takes to build her portfolio. She is hoping to go to college and use her passion in some sort of photography or digital media major. Her ultimate goal is to work for Pixar, which is pretty cool!!!! I can't wait to see where her talent takes her! She is in Memphis, so if anyone needs some pictures taken, hit her up! You can check her out on facebook here!

I love being able to brag on my siblings and their amazing talents! I love them and I hope they know I'm one of their biggest fans!