I was talking with a friend recently and she mentioned she was wanting to start a blog, purely for her family. It made me start thinking about how much I used to love blogging. I love looking back at our little blog here and all the adventures we've shared as a family. The ease and simplicity of apps like instagram have replaced our blog these last couple years, but I was looking at how little I actually write in details on instagram. Especially now that Daxton is old enough to look back and read about our adventures, I've rekindled my desire to document and update our blog. Hopefully my desire lasts long enough to catch up on all our adventures these last couple years, because my OCD nature continues to not allow me to document them out of chronological order 😂
Let's also hope that my memory picks up a bit...
We will continue where we left off, in the middle of my good friend, Heather's, visit to south Florida.
One of our favorite adventures we took with "Auntie Heather" was a manatee tour out of Naples. We were so excited to see that our tour was going to be in a small pontoon, instead of a busier boat that held more people. I loved how intimate our tour was with only four adults and one child! Our captain was incredibly kind and engaging. He loved asking Daxton lots of questions and was pretty shocked that Dax knew almost all the answers already. We are pretty obsessed with manatees in our family!
The tour took us through the local estuaries surrounding Naples and Marco Island. Each of us on the tour were given special polarized glasses to see the manatees. This helped A LOT! I couldn't believe the different how the glasses literally let you see deep into the brown water below.
Dax and Heather showing off their glasses.
Since the water is pretty shallow and is greatly effected by the tides, the clarity is not very good. We were able to see some alligators (maybe caymans) in the distance, most staying close to the mangrove islands. I loved that there were only a couple pontoon boats out looking for manatees. It was so quiet and peaceful watching for manatee sightings.
Our first glimpse!!
I had to restrain myself from literally shouting when we saw our first pair of manatees. Actually my memory has faded and I'm pretty sure I shouted anyway 😂
It was so exciting to see the two manatees interacting and pushing their noses just above the surface for air.
At one point as we were watching them, they began to get very playful and even started wrestling. It was a slow wrestling session, but pretty funny to see one roll on top of the other pushing it's head below the surface.
Heather got these awesome pics using her polarized glasses as a filter in front of her camera lens. It was pretty crazy to see the difference!
Our tour guide was absolutely amazing and had all sorts of educational items for Dax to interact with on our tour. Dax loved learning about manatee teeth and even knew how manatees were herbivores. It was fun to see the connection in his mind when he noticed the teeth were flat instead of sharp. Whenever a manatee looses its tooth, their row of teeth move forward.
Dax was also super excited that he was able to drive the boat through several mangrove islands. I couldn't help but be in awe of his cuteness with his golden long curls blowing in the wind...yes I'm that crazy mom obsessed with her child!
Along the tour we saw so many gorgeous mangrove trees with roots reaching clear into the waters below. Each of the trees had large nests shaped into their tops for sea birds.
We also got to see how a manatee's flipper has the same bone structure as ours...just much bigger. Our tour guide even had an alligator tooth for Dax to hold.
The tour lasted a little under 3 hours, which was perfect for Heather and I, but a little long for our cute little 4 year old😂
Dax was a good sport about it though, didn't complain ever, but definitely let his body language let us know how he was feeling!
Snuggles with Auntie Heather!!
Trying desperately to get a picture with my little man and he was being so helpful...
We finally opted for a selfie...
Love my little sweetheart
Some victory jumps after having arrived back to shore!
Since it was Heather's big birthday celebration, we headed over to the Cheesecake factory for lunch. I ended up bringing the iPad in to distract Dax and allow Heather and I some quality catch up time. It was pretty magical and kept this cutie entertained for quite awhile.
I'm pretty sure Dax thought it was his birthday though, not Heather's 😂
