Five of My Own: Is it 2010 already????

There should be a limit to the length of any family vacation …I’m thinking 3 days… a day shy of 3weeks, for sure that is way too long!!! I don’t want to be a complainer because it really was an amazing experience but seriously what was I thinking bringing a barely 3 year old to Europe???? Don’t let the pictures fool you the truth is there were times when I thought The Nanny would appear to perform an emergency family intervention. I am hoping it is like childbirth and overtime I will forget the pain and just remember the good stuff. It’s gonna take A LOT of time.

There were plenty good even great moments but they were MOMENTS not hours or days or weeks. That’s life though imperfect and messy. I loved watching Nolan marvel at the Coliseum in Rome and collect soccer jerseys in each city we visited. Nina was like our family ambassador to the world. She charmed everyone she met (except us of course) and everyone seemed to think she looked; Spanish, Italian, Egyptian, Greek, Turkish and claimed her as their own. Kiefer was thrilled to get to play poker in the casino and even walked away the big winner on the last night. I had to laugh at Aidan who made me go to every show on the ship with him. Dart was a kid in a candy shop with all the history around him. In Rome and Pompeii, he was positively giddy. That was the good stuff.

Then of course there were the not so good moments. The best (worst) was in the St Peter’s Basilica in Rome where Nina pitched a fit for the record books. She screamed and kicked, she hit herself and me, she arched her back and I’m not sure but her head might have spun 360 degrees. I about ran out of the church. In the midst of this toddler exorcism, she managed to kick off her shoe and I heard a man running behind me “signora, signora”. Mortified, I got the shoe back from him and escaped outside only to learn she had also kicked off a sock. I am sure it is still in there, our generous donation to the Popa.

So we traveled the Med and celebrated; Christmas and New Years and Nina’s Birthday and our Anniversary and Gotcha day at sea. We rode camels at the Great Pyramids of Egypt. Climbed the top of the Acropolis in Athens. We saw the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican , did a six person wave in the Coliseum, tossed coins in the Trevi Fountain. We cheered for football (soccer) in Barcelona and stood at the gate to Asia Minor in Ephesus. But best of all we spent 20 long wonderfully imperfect days together (and lived to blog about it!)

Christmas Morning at Sea