Almost, but nottttttt quite!

The weather today was predicted to be not so great, strong winds, snow or rain, and general dreariness, so last night we decided to hold off on buying tickets to the resort for today. That turned out to be a wise decision as everyone was tired in the morning and the weather didn't seem as though it was going to be conducive to parapenting. We had a long leisurely breakfast, took showers, and cleaned the house a bit before bundling the kids up in snow gear, packing the parapents and sleds, and going for a nice walk up to a sledding hill to kill some time this morning. It was snowing a bit, the wind was gusty and not going in the correct direction, plus the hill wasn't at all steep, so it was a good chance for people who have never flown before to get the feeling of getting the parachute over their heads. Because of the wind, we basically had to run uphill. Once we got some air in the parachute, however, the wind would change direction...so it was not the best conditions for taking off. However, we were able to get the parachute up over our heads by running as hard and as fast as we could. I could even feel the harness trying to pull my legs up for a bit, which was so cool! But I wasn't running fast enough, I was running uphill, the wind wasn't coming in my direction, plus I didn't know how to take off, so the parachute just came back down to the ground every time.

Don't worry Mom, nobody was actually going to let me fly all by myself.

Spencer took this photo of me; the parachute isn't completely over my head and I haven't let go of the straps yet. Once it's high enough, you can let go of the straps and just hold on to the breaks which is what you use to steer. I was even able to steer the kite for a bit while I was running before the parachute fell down.

Check out yesterday's flight here!