The Leonard Family
The Leonard Family
All five members of the family were born and raised in Southern California. The outdoors, specifically the ocean, has been a major part of all of their lives. Both Mandi and Scott swam competitively growing up. Scott had a long career playing water polo for UCLA, the USA National Team and even spent a year in Europe playing professionally. And now he coaches the boys’ water polo team. Mandi has spent numerous hours being towed behind a ski boat and has SCUBA dived all around the world.
The Leonard Boys
The Three Little Birds
The final inspiration needed to turn this adventure from a dream into a reality are the three Leonard boys; Griffin, Jake and Luke. The boys are excited about the trip, yet apprehensive to leave their friends behind. On the entertainment front, it has been an eye-opening task to scale down their toys and projects to a few choice items for the journey. It has been a valuable lesson in prioritizing. In all, they are an adventurous three-some, who have a great ability to rise up to challenges with a positive outlook.
As part of the preparation for this trip, the three boys have always shared a bedroom. Although we are downsizing our family living space by seventy-five percent, the boys perceive the boat as bigger since they will each gain their own bedroom; but give up a dedicated “playroom,” family room, living room, separate dinning room and a yard with a tree fort. When asked what they are looking forward to most on this trip, they all reply; “having my own bedroom and bathroom”. Although, they are not looking forward to cleaning their own bathrooms which is a strictly enforced duty for the crew of The Three Little Birds.
