Spring Break

For Spring Break, we decided to take the kids to Tampa. Why Tampa? Mostly because it's warm and we could swim but also because David spends a fair amount of time in Tampa and we thought it might be fun to share that world with the kids...so they would have a visual picture of Tampa when I tell them that Dad is "in Tampa."
As soon as we decided to travel to Florida, David insisted that we swim with the manatee while we were there. This is something that he did with his family when he was a kid and he wanted to share the experience with our kids. He found a private boat tour who could take the six of us out so that we could have focused time with the kids to teach them snorkeling and help them really interact with the manatee. It was AMAZING. It is the highlight of our vacation, even for little Cooper. All the kids were able to snorkel with flotation devices. We got to swim with a family of manatee for an hour or longer (taking turns and rest breaks for the kids).

All of us in wet suits on the boat just before we got into the water to swim with the manatee.