A MOMENT CAPTURED

Sunday, May 20, 2007 | 6:55 a.m.

By Tiffany Brown

As if skydiving once were not enough, 88-year-old Kay Garske, can't get enough. "I just love it up there, it's so beautiful. It's hard to even explain," she said while waiting to jump at SkyDiveLasVegas.com in Boulder City. She made her first tandem jump, a gift from her son and daughter, at 82. She had another hankering when she was 85.

On Mother's Day, Garske suited up for the third time and climbed back into the 12-passenger Cessna Caravan 208 that would take her and instructor Kyle Leseberg two miles above Boulder City.

"When the door opens, the first time I said, 'I'm gonna love it, I'm gonna love it, I'm gonna love it!' " Garske recalled. "But ya know, falling two miles at 155 mph isn't too much fun ... and then he pulls the rip cord and you're thrown out in the world some place. The second time I saw all of Lake Mead, and all of Hoover Dam and all of Vegas and it was just beautiful. I said, 'Simon, can we stay up here just a little longer?' "

Sue Garske stared into the sky for the first glimpse of her free-falling mother.

"I was a little nervous about her doing it at all, first time, second time or third time, but I'm excited for her," Sue Garske said. "We've staved her off for a couple years but I said, 'Hey, how do you deny your own mother something that she enjoys doing so much?' So if anything happens I know where she is going and I can live with that and I'm excited for her because I just know how much she really loves it. It's a gorgeous day and we're just looking for her pink parachute."

Kay Garske fends off the questions about the risks.

"Everybody says, 'Why would you jump out of a perfectly good plane? And I say if the Lord wants me he's gonna take me if I'm sleeping in bed or jumping out of a plane. What difference does it make? I'm ready to go."

Would she do it again?

"Sure!"