Since Sadie is so confident in the water, we decided to take her on her first excursion. We booked an afternoon snorkeling trip on a catamaran & left Sophie at the hotel with a babysitter. We specifically did the afternoon so we could spend the morning with Sophie & then she would nap while we were gone & it worked perfectly :)
Sadie was so excited to go on a boat:
However, when it started going out on the ocean, she got a little timid. She was fine walking around the back of the boat, but she got scared when I asked her to come sit on the net at the front of the boat which is directly over the water. Needless to say, it only took about 10 minutes & she was over it:
I love sailing, especially in beautiful water like this, but we hadn't really been since the girls were born:
They picked us up on a dock in front of the strip, so we got a good view of our hotel from the water:
It was a 4 hour trip with 2 snorkeling stops. The first happened a few miles down from the strip close to land. It was a shallow area with a coral reef. The water was crystal clear since it was shallow & we saw a ton of fish! I even saw a star fish. Typically they let children snorkel at 4, but they made an exception for her. Luckily they had a small enough life jacket for her. I don't wear one when I snorkel, but since we were getting in the middle of the ocean, I was determined she was wearing one. They also had small fins & a small mask:
The fins were a little big & kept falling off, so she didn't ever wear those in the water. She was not scared at all & followed her dad right down the ladder & into the water:
I stayed up so I could take pictures, but she really wanted me, so a few minutes later I dove in & switched with him. Even though she had the life jacket on, she was still a little timid in the water with the waves & being in the middle of no where, so I still held her most of the time, which is tiring when you are dog paddling the entire time without a life jacket on!
She had a hard time with the mask because she wasn't used to wearing goggles that went over your nose. And she didn't understand how to breathe, but I was able to teach her how to put her face in the water a couple of times & she said she saw some fish. She only snorkeled about 5 minutes & then she went back on the boat while I snorkeled by myself.
When I got on board, I talked her into going down the water slide:
It was pretty high & it went off the back of the boat. No one had ventured down it yet, so I was the first one brave enough to try it. After I went, I stayed in the ocean, again, dog paddling (with no life jacket, again) waiting for her to go. She was kind of scared but eventually she came & I caught her. I was so proud of her! She did quite a bit on this boat for only being 3 years old! After the two of us went, several other people finally followed. Guess they figured if a toddler could do it, they could do it!
Our next stop was at a shipwreck called Antilla. It was much deeper, I think they said 60-70 feet so the water was a lot darker & it was pretty rough. I dove in first & Sadie agreed to come with me, but the water was so rough, it scared her so she didn't really snorkel this time:
I had a hard enough time snorkeling by myself because I was being knocked over by the current & the waves, but it was pretty cool to see the shipwreck because it was huge.
We took our time sailing home & basically had a party on the boat. They had an open bar, snacks & music. Sadie loved it & she also met a friend:
Luckily she wasn't too cool for Sadie & let Sadie follow her around :)
It was such a fun afternoon for all 3 of us & I am glad we got to do something special with Sadie. She might not have really learned how to snorkel just yet, but hopefully next time she will understand & will be ready to try again.
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