Shark Story!!

Okay so....just kidding! I just realized that I start my paragraphs too often with, okay, so...

Alrighty then, yes, that is better! Alrighty then, many of you, well, not really many, more like a couple. Do over.....Alrighty then, a couple of you have asked about the shark story I mentioned a couple of days ago, so I thought I would share.

Four years ago Bri, Tori, Emi, William and I took a two week vacation. The girls and I had just finished up studying the Civil War so we decided to vacation through some of the southern states to see some of the CW sites. We stayed for several days in Gulfport, Mississippi. We had so much fun playing in the ocean, taking dolphin cruises and visiting islands! Of course as a mom, I read the sign on the beach that said to practice shark safety and be careful in murky water. I noticed that the water was very murky each day and pointed this out to my not quite as observant husband. He proceeded to point out to me that I was a worry wart and all water, in the Gulf that is so close to the barrier islands will be murky. Whatever!

Of course I kept this in the back (okay more in the middle) of my mind each day when William took the girls swimming. I would sit on the beach and watch for Jaws to come in and try to eat my children. The first day, I saw it. It was black and stuck above the water like a fin! I waded out to call to William (boy was I brave!) and pointed to the shark fin, desperate for him to get my babies back on the shore. He, of course laughed and flapped his arms like wings. I wondered if this might be an ancient shark-be-gone ritual that he was performing. Then as panic was about to come out of my mouth, I noticed that the shark flew away. Okay, so it is really hard to distinguish a shark fin from a bird on the water okay!! I am from Dallas, so give me a break!

Let's all have a laugh on Kristi..... but wait, we swam for a few more days. I continued to lie in wait to warn everyone of Jaws coming, but began to relax a bit. During our last day of swimming, we had the beach almost to ourselves. There were several people on a pier that went out pretty far into the water and a couple down about 1/2 a block from us. I was enjoying watching William and Tori play in water that was only about thigh deep on William. Then....I see another black fin looking thing. I tell myself, okay, this has to be another bird, honestly what are the chances of seeing a shark. I looked down at my book, but decided I would keep a check on it. I looked up about 30 seconds later (okay, I was keeping a really close check on it) and it was gone. Sigh of relief, it flew away. Wait, I see it again but it is getting closer to William and Tori. At this time William and Tori were enjoying standing there watching these fish jump out of the water around them (duh, shark bait!). Okay, I really see it now and oh my goodness, it really is a shark! Its really large head comes out of the water behind them to grab some fish.

Now, I am trying to figure out what in the world I am going to do. I love my family, but there ain't no way I am going in to get them (Of course that is because I was thinking of the two kids I had left on the beach :)). I could not yell out to William because Tori would drown herself trying to get out of the water. I calmly, yes I really did this calmly, called for William to please come in out of the water. He shouted, sure, no problem. Now, those of you that know William know that he can be a bit, oh how do I say it,.....SLOW! So as he is gathering Tori and walking, no more meandering toward the beach, still laughing and enjoying the waves, I see that the shark is much closer! Probably about 7 feet from where they are. I then yell for William to PLEASE, come in NOW! At this point he is close enough to see my face and see my panic so he picks Tori up and comes in quickly!

Once on the beach he turns to look and he sees the HUGE shark. I decided that I probably should tell the nice couple down the beach that were in the water. I thought, honestly I went through this in my head, I thought well, should I yell shark like in the movies or should I walk down and tell them. What do beach dwellers do???? I decided to walk down, introduce myself (from the beach of course) and warn them of the shark.

I think the man thought I was insane! They instantly came out from the water. His wife hit his shoulder and said I told you (man we had a lot in common, I had done the same thing)! He said they had noticed us looking at something, and thought maybe there was a shark. But we were so calm that they decided naw! Oops, I guess beach dwellers do yell shark! We went out on the pier and watched the shark for a long time. It ended up being about 8 feet long and was obviously chasing the jumping fish.

This entire time, Brianna was standing on the shore convinced that her dad and sister were going to be eaten by this shark (sometimes she is a tad like her momma!).

So anyway, when we take our little beach trip in September I am very sure that at least two of my girls will not go out past ankle deep in the ocean! Nor will their Momma!!!