SURPRISE!!!

Yesterday, I got to do the coolest thing I think I've ever done!  Let me start at the beginning.  In July, my grandma was diagnosed with multiple myloma, a form of bone cancer.  Over the last few months she has endured surgery to put a rod in her leg to support her femur bone, intense rehab, learning to walk again, moving in with my parents, a round of radiation, and will be starting kemo therapy in the near future.  She has been a champ through all of it and is in great spirits.  Needless to say, when you live a thousand miles away it is gut wrenching to not be there to spend time with your grandma or be there to help out your family.  So, a few weeks ago I booked my flight and started planning my trip to Ohio, never telling my mom or my grandma that I was coming.  My dad, brothers and sister in law all knew, I mean someone had to pick me up from the airport and take me home.  So yesterday morning, September 12, 2011, my grandma's 90th birthday, at 6:30 a.m. I boarded the plane and landed in Ohio at 10:30 a.m., my brother picked me up from the airport and we headed to my parents house.  The drive seemed to take forever because I was so excited to pull of my surprise.  My brother parks in front of our house and I step out and walk up to the front door.  My mom sees me through the door and starts crying and saying you came, you came.  There was not a dry eye in the house, that is for sure.  It was AWESOME!!!!! So, I spent the day cheering and making my grandma laugh through her physical therapy.  Like telling her she does look a day over 75 and telling her if she keeps working on those leg kicks, she will be ready to join the Rockettes by Christmas, she just laughs at me, and probably thinks I'm a nut, but I believe laughter is the best medicine.  Then my mom, grandma and I spent the afternoon just sitting outside on the back porch catching up, then I helped my dad finish putting up the fence in the backyard, and then the entire family met up and went out for dinner and ice cream to celebrate the birthday girls big day!!  It was so amazing to share this once in a lifetime experience with my grandma, I mean 90, that is incredible and I feel so lucky and blessed that I got to spend it with her!!

  Grandma and Mom...SURPRISE!!!!!

Dr. H

I had the pleasure of adopting my very first cat, Surf, from the Golden Isles Animal Hospital in 2003.  Ever since then Dr. Hornbuckle and his wonderful staff have loved and cared for our pets.  Shells LOVES going to the vet.  She is the only pet in my whole history of pets that gets excited to go to the vet and will sit patiently on a bench in the waiting room, if you have spent any time with Shells, you know she wants to sit where you're sitting or sit on you.  Shells got to visit Dr. H and staff today and got a clean bill of health for the year!

Summer Cook-Out

Some fun pictures from our Summer Cookout!!

Such a great time with great friends!!

Out On The Boat

We decided that since we had not had a day off together in a few weeks, that we were going to do Afun and special together on Thursday.  So, we hit the Atlantic for some fun out on the boat.  We of course started off our boating adventure at Wal-mart, which is where all of our boat days seem to start, for some reason we "always need" something for the boat, beer, snacks, fishing gear, honestly we end up spending what seems like forever in the fishing/boating aisle, which at times seems unbearable except for the calming cricket noises that come from the live cricket buckets in the fishing aisles.  I always tell Chris that the next time we come to this aisle, I am finally buying my crabbing nets, but then I never do.  I love crabbing, thank you Toni Mugavin for teaching me this fun and stress relieving activity.  Chris is still not 100% sold on the crabbing, but we will get there! (Once we buy the nets)  So then from Wal-mart we head to our boats home, Summer Waves.  We have to pack up coolers with ice, load our purchased items into the boat and we are then ready to set sail.  This trip was a very special, yet nerve racking trip because it was our first trip out on the boat with just the two of us and no one else to help us.  No one else to back up the truck and get the boat launched or get the boat back on the trailer, evenly, and pulled out, but we did it and we did a great job with it, amazing teamwork by the small Brown family!!  So once we launched the boat and were cruising through the river, we were ready for our adventure to begin.  We went over by Cumberland Island to fish, but the fishies were no where to be found.  What I did end up finding was a hidden Yellow Jacket home in one of the cubbies.  Not a fun experience being stung for the first time by a yellow jacket and stuck in a boat.  At the time it was not funny, but to look back on it, it was hysterical if you were watching our boat.  There is me screaming bloody murder and holding my hand while running all around the boat, trying to avoid the swarm.  I mean really, there is not much room in a boat, where was I going to hide from them, no way was I jumping over the side of the boat, but every single time they flew around, I ran around and screeched, while Chris just calmly sat or stood there as I tried to run around him or hide behind him.  So after Chris killed about 8 yellow jackets, we decided to move closer to St. Andews Sound on Jekyll Island and that is where we got some action on our poles.  A lot of that action was fish stealing out bait, but it was still fun.   Here are our catches of the day (all of which were thrown back and lived to swim another day).

Here is Chris fighting for 45 minutes to bring in this fish!

Finally after 45 minutes, this monster of a Sting Ray surfaces!  The ray was HUGE!!  We ended up cutting our line and letting Malamute swim free.  Yes, I tend to name all of the fish we catch, well except the ones we keep, because it makes me feel bad about eating them.

I caught this little 1 ft baby hammerhead shark named Marcus, he had the wildest tail and loved to slap it around and hit Chris and I. 

My final catch of the day was little 1 1/2 ft hammerhead by the name of Manwell. 

It was so much fun out fishing on the boat, I can't wait until our next day off, which hopefully will be more frequent these days, since summer is coming to a close. 

Safety First

Water safety is not just for people in our house.  Shells is ready for the beach, boat, and pool!

Happy World Sea Turtle Day!

Days Off In The Summer

Sorry for the large break in posts.  So is the life of 2 Waterpark people in the summer...busy is an understatement!  Chris and I both are lucky enough to have at least one full day off together and on that one day we try to make the most of it.  So on our first day off we spent it with Shells at St. Andrews Beach on Jekyll Ilsand.   Chris fished...caught nothing.  I read...didn't finish the book.  Shells swam her little feet off.  Here are some fun photos of that day. 

We had so much fun just relaxing in the sun!

Day 2:  On the boat headed to Cumberland Island to do some fishing!

Captain Chris in that rediculous, yet cute hat

Chillin'

What an adorable shark!  Yes, for those that knew me from back home in Ohio, this is an amazing feet.  My grandma always teeses me about how when I lived in Ohio I was afraid of all bugs, lizards, snakes, and anything that was really slimmy or gross...times have surely changed.  Living in the South, you have to get used to bugs, frog (though they still creep me out), snakes, fishes, sharks,etc...

Yep, nothing to end a day on the boat than a beautiful sunset!

Day 3:

Nothing way to exciting to report today.  We just lounged around most of the day and just took a day to catch out breath and get ready for the next week.  We did have some fun jamming with Mandy at The Chapel, it is good to have both of us branch out with our musical abilities to our wonderful church.  In my final thoughts, I was driving today and heard the most awsome song by the Zach Brown Band and Jimmy Buffet and it seriously is exactly how I feel most days, her are just some of the lyrics...

 Wishing I was knee deep in the water somewhere
Got the blue sky breeze and it don't seem fair
Only worry in the world is the tide gonna reach my chair
Sunrise there's a fire in the sky
Never been so happy
Never felt so high
And I think I might have found me my own kind of paradise

This champagne shore washing over me
It's a sweet sweet life living by the salty sea
One day you could be as lost as me
Change you're geography
Maybe you might be

Knee deep in the water somewhere
Got the blue sky breeze blowing wind through my hair
Only worry in the world is the tide gonna reach my chair
Sunrise there's a fire in the sky
Never been so happy
Never felt so high
And I think I might have found me my own kind of paradise

I think that pretty much sums it all up!! 

We Survived!

In the world of waterparks and aquatic centers, the week before you open for the season is in one word INSANE!  There are so many loose ends to tie up, no matter how much you plan and prepare, it gets crazy and way to fast paced.  This is the week where there is pretty much early mornings and late nights for Chris and I and about 5 seconds to tell each other we love them before our heads hit the pillow and we crash for a few hours, just to do it all again the next day.  It's a rough week to say the least.  On the flip side of this is opening up your park for the first day of the season and seeing all of your hard work and sleepless nights pay off.  It is the highlight of my day to have all of your staff in place doing a great job and every single person having a fun time swimming around.  It makes it all worth it!  Now that the gates have opened we can finally settle into our "summer normal" and to us that is what we live for!

Name Explained

My whole life, I have been refered to as a fish.  I was always the first one in the pool or ocean and the last one begging not to have to get out.  It is fitting that years later in my grown up years I chose a profession in Aquatics.  I've had the wonderful opportunity to work at some great waterparks and pools, and have loved every minute of it.  I then married my husband who also has a love for water and manages a waterpark.  People always laugh when they hear what we both do for a living and call us the water couple.  That's right, we love and live our lives in the wonderful world of water and would truly have it no other way!  There is nothing more relaxing than looking into a crystal, clear, blue pool or the sun glistening ocean.  To me that is heaven on earth.  Some people say that there is the power of healing in water, and I can't tell you how true that is.  On our worst day, Chris, my husband, and I can always take a minute and look around at the peacefullness of the water and know all is well and that God put water on the earth for our enjoyment.  Yes, we are the water people, the fishes of the pool, and that is why our blog is fittingly named...For The Love Of Water!