April is a busy month for thejayfather. perhaps most importantly, it is Jill's birthday, and so there is a lot of celebrating to do. and celebrate we did, in fine style, as the following picture almost attests. for my birthday back in March, Jill had booked a hot air balloon ride, which, while we never actually got to take it, nevertheless gave me a good idea for what to do on her birthday. unfortunately, you'd be surprised at how much people charge you to throw yourself from an airborne plane, so we had to do the next best thing: indoor skydiving.
the Birthday Girl outside the windtunnel
we took a drive--Jill blindfolded--down to Perris, California, and found this silo-looking thing sticking up in pretty much the middle of nowhere. but they do do a whole bunch of skydiving at the Perris Airport--there was even a huge international competition going on while we were there--and we were stoked to have our first taste of flight; Jill almost cried when she took her blindfold off.
at 50 bucks for two minutes of flight, it isn't a cheap thrill, but it was certainly worth it, and certainly something we'd do again. when you're flying you can see the concrete of the ground below through a mesh floor of the actual windtunnel; i was a bit surprised that the turbine isn't beneath, pushing you up, but that there are actually five fan blades above you, sucking you into the air. apparently this arrangement reduces turbulence. anyway, they give you a few minutes of training, teaching you some hand signals because you can't hear anything in the tunnel, and then you go for it. the slightest movements seem to send you zooming across the chamber, but there is a guy in there to pull you back to the middle. Jill did a legendary job of flying, and i only wish i could have got a picture of her face being pushed back by 150 mph winds!
later that night, the revelry didn't stop, we just moved the party to Buena Park to take in a pirate-themed dinner show. they divide up all the diners into six teams, each led by a pirate who is in the show. it's very interactive, and they always want you to be cheering on your pirate's performance. basically it's a lot of stylized brawling with a very loose and kind of rambling love story plot, but altogether quite entertaining. our pirate, the red one named Jack, was indeed the best and is pictured below with Jill, of all people:
the Birthday Girl outside the windtunnel
we took a drive--Jill blindfolded--down to Perris, California, and found this silo-looking thing sticking up in pretty much the middle of nowhere. but they do do a whole bunch of skydiving at the Perris Airport--there was even a huge international competition going on while we were there--and we were stoked to have our first taste of flight; Jill almost cried when she took her blindfold off.
at 50 bucks for two minutes of flight, it isn't a cheap thrill, but it was certainly worth it, and certainly something we'd do again. when you're flying you can see the concrete of the ground below through a mesh floor of the actual windtunnel; i was a bit surprised that the turbine isn't beneath, pushing you up, but that there are actually five fan blades above you, sucking you into the air. apparently this arrangement reduces turbulence. anyway, they give you a few minutes of training, teaching you some hand signals because you can't hear anything in the tunnel, and then you go for it. the slightest movements seem to send you zooming across the chamber, but there is a guy in there to pull you back to the middle. Jill did a legendary job of flying, and i only wish i could have got a picture of her face being pushed back by 150 mph winds!
later that night, the revelry didn't stop, we just moved the party to Buena Park to take in a pirate-themed dinner show. they divide up all the diners into six teams, each led by a pirate who is in the show. it's very interactive, and they always want you to be cheering on your pirate's performance. basically it's a lot of stylized brawling with a very loose and kind of rambling love story plot, but altogether quite entertaining. our pirate, the red one named Jack, was indeed the best and is pictured below with Jill, of all people:
Jack and Jill, then Jay and Jill in front of the galleon/stage at the Pirate's Dinner Adventure
and then April is an especially busy month this year for one obvious reason: Jill and thejayfather's upcoming nuptials. for those of you who didn't get one yet, or didn't get one at all, i hope showing it here won't add insult to injury, but Jill and i were very pleased with the way that all of our engagement pictures, and especially this invitation came out.
consider yourself invited
it was a bit strange to get into wardrobe and go and spend an hour on location with a professional photographer, but we were both really impressed by Steve, who owns Shutterbugz photography in Salt Lake. he would tell us how to position our heads or how to hold our hands just so to make the photos look natural, even though some of the poses felt anything but. in that hour he took about 180 pictures, which is a good thing, because while Jill is really photogenic, thejayfather is not, so we needed all of those to come up with the five shots on the invitation. in any case, let me know what you think. if you're not thinking much, here's something from the wall inside the windtunnel to get you pondering:
it was a bit strange to get into wardrobe and go and spend an hour on location with a professional photographer, but we were both really impressed by Steve, who owns Shutterbugz photography in Salt Lake. he would tell us how to position our heads or how to hold our hands just so to make the photos look natural, even though some of the poses felt anything but. in that hour he took about 180 pictures, which is a good thing, because while Jill is really photogenic, thejayfather is not, so we needed all of those to come up with the five shots on the invitation. in any case, let me know what you think. if you're not thinking much, here's something from the wall inside the windtunnel to get you pondering:
