One of the most difficult parts about being a parent is "letting go". Watching your child take their first steps that you celebrate you are unaware that someday those steps will lead to them walking away from you to live their own life. As they continue to grow you begin to realize what a treasure the time is that you get to watch them as kids. Kids just playing - laughing, trying out new roles, and just purely amazed at the world they are discovering. The gift of course is that you get to discover or re-discover it all with them. Each of our boys found their own unique joys and shared in their discoveries. One their many discovers were the many creatures that they kept in our home - Brad's snake Slinky, the boys turtles - Jim McMann and the Fridge, a snapping turtle - Shambler, and even a scorpion - Stogie (later named Cruella - as she ate all of her young!). Creatures were always part of the many experiences the boys shared. Including the frog that was left in someone's pocket discovered floating in the washing machine ... and more. So, when our boys, Brad and Sean, were young we came down to Key Largo along with my mother and took them out snorkeling in John Pennekamp Underwater Reef Park to find even more creatures - however, ones that would not find a place in our home. Now, Brad was not very fond of the water - he was more of a "land animal" lover. However, Sean took to it like a fish. He was the one who would jump off the bow of the boat during our summer vacations screaming into the cold Lake Michigan water and come up sputtering with a big smile on his face. So he was thrilled to see an Eagle Ray on his first snorkeling experience. He held onto that experience and we did as well.

Time has gone by and the boys are now adult men. So as a gift we presented Sean with an opportunity to take scuba diving lessons. Even with his busy schedule as a husband and detective, he was able to complete the lessons and was certified this past year. Our sailing plan this year included time in the Florida Keys so that Sean and Tesia could go out on our boat allowing Sean to try out his new certification. We had just arrived in Key Largo shortly before the "kids" - Sean and Tesia arrived. (They love it when I refer to them as the kids as they have now been married for eight years! ) We hadn't had an opportunity to plan trips out to the reef to go diving because it took us quite a while to get the boat in the water and ready in Indiantown, stop at a marina in Stuart to get a new winch installed, make our way from Lake Worth, Coconut Grove, and finally find a place in Key Largo.

As a result, our first diving experience on the Molasses reef was with Sean and Tesia. It was amazing to watch the "kids" - Sean and Tesia play in the water and discover all the reef life surrounding our boat. The first dive Sean and Wiley partnered up and Tesia and I went off snorkeling. While snorkeling I was lucky enough to watch my grown son off playing once again. Tesia and I donned wetsuits and off we went with a floating dive flag. We found a Goliath Grouper close in on the reef getting his gills cleaned by small cleaner fish as well as the usual assortment of beautiful reef fish and I got a chance to watch Tesia at play as well. She is an excellent snorkeler and looked so at ease in the water. Both of them came up from the water with new experiences to share - Sean told of seeing a couple of sharks, large midnight parrot fish, an eel, queen angelfish... etc. etc. Tesia wanted to know the names of the fish she saw - spotlight parrot fish, filefish, blue reef fish, and grunts... The second dive I was paired with Sean and we did a very short dive as the current was getting stronger and my buoyancy compensator was not working correctly. However, I was thrilled to watch him darting, bubbles floating up, looking under coral heads - eager to take in all that he could. I was sure that I saw him smiling even with the regulator in his mouth.

So it was a joy to watch "the kids" having fun, but I soon discovered that it was not "the kids" that I was really enjoying but their experiences shared as adults. We were having the same experiences and talking about them. This is one of the great shifts that happened - they are no longer -kids - but adults that shared sharing conch fritters, dinner out on the bay at Snooks, snorkeling at Bahia Mar, stories, jokes, and cocktails. I miss my time watching my children play but am thrilled to let that go since now I get to thoroughly share their joy as adults as friends that we get to go and play with. We are lucky they chose to spend their time with a couple of "old people" who loved spending time with interesting, interested, and fun adults.