Brilliance Of The Seas

Have you heard about the Brilliance of the Seas in the news last week? It hit some pretty rough weather in the Mediterranean, waves up to the 10th floor causing damage in many of the public areas and state rooms as well as injuries to some of the guests. When people finally got ashore many said they would never sail again as they were terrified holding on for dear life. It was bizarre seeing the captain and crew, who had just helped us have a wonderful cruise, defending their actions. The captain said it was the worst storm he's ever seen in his 30 years of navigation and the weather was way more intense than was predicted. So glad we were on the cruise just before that one so we could enjoy all of this.....

Our monkeys weren't the only ones hanging around on the ship.

Grandma S. joined us for the fun too. It was so nice to have an extra pair of hands to help out, especially trading off with Graham. On this ship they didn't have much planned if you were under 3 and not potty trained. But we all traded off chasing this little guy and tried really hard to give mom lots of free time and not have her feel like our personal babysitter.

Zach, feeling adventurous, was just old enough to try out the rock wall.

So of course Chris and

I had to try it too. In fact the last day at sea Chris won 3rd place in an adult rock wall climbing competition.

Some routes were more difficult than others depending on what color you chose. Since Zach isn't as tall as other six year olds he really had to stretch on some of his climbs. Another highlight for Zach was that one night a magician needed a child from the audience to assist him and Zach was picked. He had Zach help him make a snow flake from paper then he magically made snow shoot from his hands all over the stage. Zach was thrilled to be on stage and for days after his performance other passengers kept talking about what a great job he did.

The kids club was FANTASTIC! Not only was the crew outstanding but there were some other really neat families on the boat. In fact there was another family with 3 boys very near our boys ages and they brought their Grandma along too. Our boys really latched on to the older siblings and it was a fun coincidence when we ended up on some of the same shore excursions.

Our wait staff just loved our boys. They tried their best to make sure the boys were happy, which isn't always easy at meal time. Graham likes to do this banging thing with his utensils and dishes. At home you can tell where he sits not only by the mess but the dents in the table. As per usual he was banging away on his bowl and this time it actually broke.

Another fun thing for the older boys was to have date times with mom or dad while Graham napped. Usually we ended up in the game room playing Sorry.

The last day at sea the Kids Adventure Club put on a talent show. Unfortunately all 3 cameras were out of power by then as we all forgot our chargers:( Zach chose to share a magic trick that Aunt Lauren had taught him last summer. The group was pretty amazed to see him put a penny behind his head and bring it out his mouth. The last performer was Ethan. When they called his name Chris and I looked at each other questioning what his talent was since he already told us he wasn't allowed to burp the alphabet. Ethan stood up wearing his superman cape and birthday crown and began to hop and down to the music. He did some spins and then all the kids got up and joined him. Although my description is pretty lack luster everyone was laughing and I was practically in tears it was so funny....he does have the ability to get the party started. His after performance interview was even funnier. When they asked him how old he was he said, "4. Oh yeah, I'm 5."  They then asked how long he'd been dancing and he replied, "For 10 years."

We did have one tragic event on the cruise. Ethan, being funny, hid Zach's favorite stuffy Hockey in the garbage can. What he didn't know was that it would be emptied while we were out and incinerated. It was not recovered and Zach lost his best friend since birth. Ethan tried to console him that it's wasn't so bad because remember how he lost his on our road trip last year. I was so furious with Ethan's constant torturing of Zach and told him he burned Zach's stuffy just like on Toy Story 3. Finally I think it sorta registered what he had done, as that movie really affected him. We took a sobbing uncontrollably Zach into our room for the night leaving Ethan with Grandma. As we sat on the bed crying over the loss Zach through his tears says, "Mom I forgive Ethan. He didn't know what he was doing but it just hurts." This made me tear up even more as I was shocked at how easily he forgave his brother let alone didn't retaliate. Chris and I were so proud of Zach and knew that his tears were from the pain of loss not hatred.