Swimming with the Sharks

For Chloe's birthday, Nana and Papaw John got her a certificate to swim with the sharks at the Florida Aquarium in Tampa. She was SOOOO excited! She's wanted to do this since the first time we went to the aquarium a couple of years ago, but you have to be at least 9 years old to do it. She was pumped! 

 She was ready as soon as we walked in

 We got there early enough to go through the aquarium, and they had a baby gator out for the kids to touch and learn about.

 The kids were glowing all over in the blacklight. Even Chloe's earrings were glowing!

 Time for action! Chloe had her own locker with her name on it, wet suit & shoes and a goodie bag inside.

 All suited up

 The girls strutting their stuff to the aquarium. It was just Chloe and one other girl that also turned 9 in September. Blake and her mom had a hard time telling them apart in the tank because they were the same build, same hair color, same hairdo and the same outfit.

 Chloe posed in front of the smaller tank that would be the first tank they would snorkel in.

 They had a divemaster that was with them the entire time in the water. Everyone there was great!

 Getting the rundown on what to do and what to expect

 Getting geared up! They had an oxygen tank on their bellies with a regulator so they didn't have to deal with snorkels. Chloe thought that was pretty cool, and it helped them float too.

 A surprise that they got was that they each got a GoPro to record what they wanted in the smaller tank. The smaller tank had a lot of smaller fish and a few large stingrays. They were able to kind of float on their own in that tank and go where they wanted to go since it was a small area. Their divemaster also had a GoPro and was recording them as well. We found out when reviewing the videos though that Chloe was holding hers backwards the entire time...

 Off they go!

 I was up top with Chloe the whole time so I got the behind the scenes and above water pictures. Blake was in charge of the underwater videos and pictures. Some of our videos are too big to upload, so I just uploaded the ones that I could.

 Now to move over to the big part of the aquarium where the bigger fish, sharks and sea turtles are! They had a long pole to hold on to. The divemaster was in the middle and the girls were on each side of him. He did all of the steering and moving, and the girls just held on for the ride.

Flip the sea turtle came over and visited them!

 Chloe gave it 2 big thumbs up and was already asking before we even made it back to the lockers to change out of her wet suit when she could do it again! Thanks Nana and Papaw John!!