Danielle Blog

Happy Birthday, Seestor!

My seeeeeeeeeestor, a.k.a. Texas Sister, has her birthday today.

One of the moments we shared together this past year, that really stands out for me, was on a very special vacation to St. Croix. I’ll tell you all about it one of these times, probably in March when winter really starts to get to me, and I’ll roll out more pics of our trip last year. But for now, lets focus on the sisterly-bonding moments.

One of the advantages of the hotel where we stayed was that you could use the hotel’s snorkeling gear to go out and explore the reef anytime you felt like it. In the pic below, you might be able to see some colored ring/floats beyond the rocks (I put white arrowheads pointing to them). They mark the reef.

Well, I learned to snorkel in gym class in middle-school, and I’ve always been relatively comfortable in water, but it is a whooooooooooole different matter to snorkel in the ocean.

But my seestor helped me get started and led me out there. She also knew my eyes were not going to be so great without my glasses, so she’d spot the cool fish, take my hand to get my attention, and point them out to me.

And it was amazing. I have always loved going to aquariums and seeing all the aquatic life, but snorkeling brought it right up within arms reach. I couldn’t believe I was right there, swimming with them.

I got to see my first sea turtle with her. It was the most incredible creature. It swam with such quiet grace.

And on another trip out, she showed me the sea fans. They would sway with the waves, back and forth, back and forth, like being rocked to sleep. It was so peaceful.

She also helped me find the school of blue tang that would munch on the reef. I’d been hearing them munch and nibble, but they can be kind of elusive to find the first time.

What I remember most about our first trip out, is that I was so excited, I was ignoring that I was getting tired. And then when I finally realized that I was so tired, I panicked and got a little scared about getting back. But being the good big-sister, she recognized my anxiety and calmed me down. She tucked my hand under her arm and reassured me that we could get back okay.

She ended up doing a lot of the kicking to get us back (almost all of it, really). It was in that moment, that the feeling of having a big sister who looks out for me, came back to me. It felt just like when we were little kids, and she looked out for me. Whether it was riding bikes, swimming, or moving to a new neighborhood and meeting the neighborhood kids, she was there, keeping an eye out for me.

But then there was that time when I was very little and she convinced me to sit in a plastic bucket as if it were a car. Lord knows why I did it; she must have made it sound like fun. And for some unknown reason, I had on a winter coat inside the house while riding around in the bucket, and it didn’t take long until I got stuck and hot and turned red…
… but well, big sisters can’t be angels all of the time, right?

grin

Happy Birthday, Seestor!

Note: above water pics taken with the usual Sony Cyber-shot, underwater pics were taken by Texas Sister with a disposable underwater camera.