Alaska Cruise - Part I

The Eason crew was soo ready for a vacation! Brent was a little worked out, I was ready for someone else to cook & clean for me for 7 days and the kids wanted to see what all this fuss was about a cruise (I've used it as my "excuse" for about 6 months saying we couldn't purchase certain items because we were saving up for this cruise!).

 After dropping off luggage, checking in, and boarding the ship - we were finally here! Our rooms weren't quite ready yet, so we headed up for some lunch and gorgeous views of Seattle. We also watched just how much luggage needed to be boarded on this ship - it really is amazing how they have it down to a science and can move everything on board in less than 4 hours. (Passenger capacity of the Carnival Legend is 2,124 with 930 crew members - that's one big ship!)

Found our room after lunch on the STARBOARD side (proud of me Brent??). :)

After a quick safety drill, we were ready to set sail for Alaska!

My three favorite men

My favorite thing about cruising was always getting all fancy for dinner and going to a "restaurant" every night. It pretty much still was on this cruise too. I think Brock liked it too - it took him about 2 days for him to take the initiative asking our waiter for his drink order all by himself! But when he got the hang of it, he liked the idea he could get almost anything he wanted (one night he ordered orange juice for dinner!).

And then there was always dessert!

Brock slept on a pull-down bunk with a railing on the side (we put a pillow on that side too, just in case). He loved it! It was someplace he could go to get away from Kade and play with his toys.... and we loved it because he couldn't get down by himself either. We could make sure Brock and Kade had some alone time apart! Kade was in a small crib right below him.

The first night was rough. Neither really took a nap all day and when it came time to go to bed, they were both so over-tired, it was bad. Kade is also teething and very cranky from that. After everyone finally got to sleep, Kade woke back up at 3:00AM screaming. I should also mention, Brock had woken up an hour earlier with a pretty bad nosebleed, so we were all still up from that...  No settling down was in the foreseeable future, so off Kade and I went to walk the halls. What to do with a cranky toddler who won't sleep - go to the casino!! (FYI It was closed - no one was there)

He looks so happy and so tired

 We finally nestled in to a chair in some bar and he fell asleep on my lap. I went back to the room about an hour later and thankfully he transitioned right to his bed. The remaining nights, I used my "white noise" app on my phone and things went much better!

It's a good thing he's so cute.

Brent loved reading about the specs of the ship and walking around to see the mechanics. Brock wasn't feeling all the wind. ;)

The second day we discovered our first towel animal! :) I made Brock pose for a picture before he could smash them. God, he's such a boy.

And then it was time to eat dinner again! Kade is so funny - "cheee". (cheese)

Say goodnight, tomorrow we are cruising the Inside Passage.

We headed down to the restaurant to have a nice breakfast. Brock liked toasting his glass with us.

Carnival had a few things for the kids - apparently they're partnered with Dr. Suess for "Suess at Sea." They had a cute parade through the Promenade Deck to the Follies Main Theater with the Suess characters and a story reading of Green Eggs and Ham.

The above is not a great picture, but shows Kade's eye injury very well. He fell earlier that morning and hit right above his eye on the nightstand in our room. I guess he was trying to match my eye scar. Anyway, it was bleeding a little and looked a little deep, so we made a visit to the Infirmary. Thankfully after cleaning it up, it didn't look too bad and the nurse put a little bandage on it. He ended up with a nice black eye too. Poor Kade - that room was not toddler-proof!

Last picture for this part - my friend Shaunis suggested that we decorate the cabin door so that Brock would know which room was ours when walking down the hall. It was a great idea! All the animals have little magnets on them and it was Brock's job to decorate the door (the cabin doors are magnetic). Whales and Salmon(?) for the Alaskan cruise! :)