It's a bird, it's a plane...

Since I moved off to college, my sister, Renee, and I have had a yearly tradition of spending her birthday weekend together. Each year, I would meet our parents halfway and pick Renee up (along with a little "fun-money" from Momma!) and head back to Belton to celebrate. In celebrating, we always tried to out-do the last year's fun and crazy adventures. The first year, we were brave little daredevils and lit candles on her birthday cake in my dorm room! And it only escalated from there...

We've been rock climbing, bowling roller skating on jr. high night (because the bowling alley burned down three years earlier and no one told Google), outlet mall shopping, cliff jumping, and now...

SKYDIVING!! 

That's right! This year, Renee and I topped every other year and we jumped out of a plane! This is something I've wanted to do for a long time, but never had the opportunity. Renee started asking me my freshman year of college if I would take her one day, so we decided if she saved her money I would take her for her 18th birthday. So that's just what we did! Eli, Momma, and Daddy came to watch as we risked our lives!

 

SO excited to go skydiving!

After weather delays for 4 hours, we finally got to suit up!

 Heading to our plane! We each decided it was worth it to pay for a photographer to take pictures in the air. And it was SO worth it! That's my photographer in the orange and black and my tandem instructor in front of me. Renee's tandem instructor is next to her and her photographer/videographer is way up front in red pants. They were all really great and super nice. And it was very comforting to find out that our instructors have made over 13,000 jumps each!

 Here's our plane!

 Here we go!! We flew up to 12,000 feet in the air (yes, TWO MILES high!) and got ready to jump. This was the point when our instructors started strapping us in and there was no backing out!

Here is my photographer, oh just standing outside of the plane. No big deal. 

three... two... one... JUMP!

If you can't see, you should click on the series below to enlarge it! Pretty exciting!

When we jumped out of the plane, a small balloon went up to balance us out and keep us upright. Then we had a 60 second freefall! This part was so crazy and exhilarating! My photographer was only a few feet away and stayed with us until my instructor, Sam, let out our chute. It is so hard to smile up in the air when you're falling that fast! But then again, it's hard not to smile when you do something like this!! 

 Now it's Renee's turn!! (She made me go first "just to make sure it works" Haha!)

 And here's Renee's jump series:

After our parachute went up, we got to relax and enjoy everything around us. It was actually very quiet and peaceful as we took our time to get to the ground. Renee got to "steer" her parachute and even do a few 360s in the air! After about 10 minutes, the ground started to look familiar again and we could see everyone waiting for our return.

Prepare for landing!

 I am so blessed to have such a wonderful sister! It wasn't even my birthday, but it was the best birthday ever! These birthday weekends will always hold a special place in my heart. Not because we were crazy went skydiving, but because I got to share them with Renee!

I love you so much, Little One! Happy 18th Birthday!!   Love always, your big sis. 

Back again - part 2

This post comes completely from July and August. But a ton has happened lately, so it's definitely worth it!

First up, we celebrated our first anniversary on July 17th! Some days, it really seems like we haven't been married long. And then other days, we feel like we've been together forever! This past year has been a series of blessings and we are so thankful that God has allowed us this time together.

To celebrate our anniversary, we stayed the weekend in Austin, ate a wonderful dinner at Chez-Zee, and spent the day canoeing in Zilker Park. 

It was such a great weekend. We can't wait to celebrate again next year!

Another highlight of our summer was going to Florida with my family. We got to see all of my family, relax at the beach, show Eli where I grew up, and go to Disney World! I forgot to take my camera charger, so unfortunately I didn't get too many pictures, but here's a look at our time in Florida.

We ran into a couple of dorks on the beach... :)

 While in Florida, we took a little tour of the University of Florida (Go Gators!!) It's so crazy to think that my little sister is graduating high school this year and has already applied for college! College!! She's supposed to still be a pestering 10 year old, not this almost-grown-up college kid. I'm so proud of her and I know God is going to use her in huge ways!

But, sadly... she got eaten by a gator while we were there... Haha!

And a few pictures from Disney, before my camera died.

 Okay, that puts us at August, which was the most eventful month of the summer. Eli got a job as a youth minister in a small country church and we moved into the parsonage right next to the church. This was such a huge blessing. God has really provided in ways we never expected.

We've been in our new house for just over a month. It's been quite the adventure, but we're loving it! I'll post more pictures and stories about our house soon. But for now, here's the view of our cute little country house.

Back again! (update part 1)

So, the intention of this blog was to write little notes every day every once in a while to document our life, starting right before we got married... Well, we see that lasted for a very short time. Life has been busy and a lot has happened, but I'd love to come back to the blog world and see if we can continue this now!

Happenings in the Jackson household over the past year:

I know it seems like a while back, but let's start with December, since that's where we left off. Here is our first little Christmas tree. We decided to buy a real one since we both grew up with real trees. Don't worry though, it's only about 4 feet tall... That's why it's on a coffee table!

Our ornament we bought in Asheville, NC on our honeymoon

 

January - Audrey and Dennis Greeson's wedding. Sorry, forgot my camera in the car during the wedding, so all I have is from the reception.

February - Cameron Park Zoo in Waco!

March - Eli got to go play paintball with some of his friends. He was in Heaven! The teenager inside of him definitely had a blast! I've played before, but this time I just played photographer.

Time for church softball! 

Spring Break in East Texas with my parents - PineyWoods Baptist Camp (sorry for all the photos...this could be a whole post in itself! The camp is gorgeous!)

Fishing:

Horses and a farmhouse:

Canoeing:

May - Camping at the lake for Eli's birthday

 (don't worry... I am wearing a shirt, the straps are just light!)

Ok, if you've made it to here, then you are either dedicated or stalking us... either way, we're glad to share what's been going on in our lives. More to come very soon!