Move to Siesta Key

What fun we had swimming when we stayed in the cottage on the Gulf! Alex, of course, loved it. He didn’t do much swimming with the waves, but lay in his tube and rode along happy as a little king. He swam, with the tube on, over some of the waves and deliberately ducked under others, so we felt he was getting good practice at feeling secure in the water.

Carli was the funny one. Buckled into Alex’s outgrown life jacket, she splashed in the waves as eagerly as he did. We could balance her with one hand, and she flipped up and over the waves like a tiny cork. We had one very rough day just before we left. When I was out just waist deep, the waves were breaking over my head. Both children adored it. The salt water is so buoyant that it was easy to jump over the waves, but an occasional one would trick us and break right on top of us. Even when that curling white deluge of foam landed on her head, Carli came up laughing. And she adored jumping up one side of the waves and sliding down the other. Alex rode over the waves easily in his tube, though once in a while, one would toss him under. Bucher and I took turns watching each child, so one of us always had a hand on each; there was no particular danger to them in the rough water, and we all had a marvelous time.