A Pez Day

We finally took some time to get all the Pez that have been collected for the last few months entered into our collection database. Some of these included the Dale Earnhardt Jr #88, Pirates of the Caribbean and the second series of MLB.

Keith now has 1059 PEZ but this will go up soon as we have ordered the Disney Fairies and Gary the Snail which should arrive this week. He also added to his collection today when he was out shopping. He found one of the PEZ for Pets dispensers. These dispense dog treats but it's still a Pez product. There were two of these released so we are still on the lookout for another one. Speaking of looking for PEZ we also need a new Goofy that has large teeth. Of course looking for these is part of the fun of collecting.

Same Old Stuff

There is nothing that we would call exciting going on in our world, just basic household maintenance. Last week the garage door opener quit working so we decided to replace it with one of the quiet belt drives. After getting this installed the spring on the door broke so we had to have a new one made to fit. Needless to say what seemed to be an easy project became one of those homeowners " It Never Fails" moments.

We also decided that the old wooden landing at the bottom of the deck needed to be replaced. They had gotten so bad that we didn't even like to step on them. After shopping around we choose to use blocks and a slate look stone. They went in easier than we anticipated and after a couple evenings we finally had something we were happy with.

Now that Keith has been back in South Carolina for a couple of weeks he has put his name on a list to do another TDY in August. This one is just out west for a week or so but it would still be a nice trip. Since he's been home he has used some of his free time to finish restoring the shotgun that he began work on when he was home on leave. Now I need him to come home again so I get a chance to try it out.

We think we are current on the PEZ collection as we have the new MLB PEZ along with the Pirates of the Caribbean. We are missing Bruce the Shark and Gary the Snail but I'm sure we will come across them sooner or later. After all half the fun is in the hunt.

We are now looking forward to spending some time this weekend with some friends in Danville were we will be celebrating the graduation of their daughter. It's hard to believe that Kris did babysitting for her. We didn't realize Kris had gotten that OLD.

He's Back

After almost two months Keith is back to SC arriving about 10pm last night after almost 13 hours of travel. After spending today resting up he called tonight and we spent over an hour and a half talking about the things he did and saw while in Italy. It would be too much to write about all of it but here are some of the highlights.

While in Rome they spent a lot of time visiting many of the city's churches. Many of these buildings are over 400 years old and have many artifacts out for display. He said these were more interesting than many of the museums. They also enjoyed the many Roman ruins throughout the city. Of course no visit would be complete without seeing the Sistine Chapel which although ah inspiring was packed shoulder to shoulder. The biggest drawback is that everything is very expensive there. It cost about $6 for a bottle of water and diner ran about $45. If we think gas is bad theirs is around $9 per gallon.

Some of the other highlights were a ride on Italy's version of the Autobahn where travel reaches average speeds higher than we would like to think about. And then there is the picture above showing one of the many interesting traffic signs. Being a collector of military firearms he spent time looking at the many collections of weapons and armor from the middle ages. We know that he had a great time and will have memories that will stay with him forever.

Pez From Europe

We received a package from Keith that contained all the PEZ that he collected while in Italy. He sent them home so that he did not have to pack them for the flight home. After all the airlines are now charging for extra weight and baggage. Although some of these are available in the US they are on European cards which are not sold here. So it does add to the collection as a variation of a dispenser. I guess it only matters to a serious collector. Anyway we know some of you enjoy seeing some of the PEZ he collects so here they are.

Rome

For those of you who have been waiting here are some pictures that Keith
e-mailed to us today. We hope you enjoy them.

Keith in front of The Temple of Saturn

Roman Forum Ruins

Colosseum

Inside the Colosseum

It never fails to amaze us the opportunities that the Air Force has given to Keith. This is the 10th Air Base that he has worked at over the last four years. He has been places like Vegas, the Gulf Coast, Salt Lake and now Italy. We just wonder what adventures still lay ahead for him.

Holiday Weekend

We continue to stay busy as there always seems that something needs to be done around here. The gardening keeps us going and it seems the lawn needs to be mowed every other day. With all this we did take Sunday off to relax and enjoy the day. Two the Kris' friends' Stacey and Karen, were down with her and Charlie for the weekend so Sunday night we had them all here for a cookout. We all had a good time talking about things that went on during the wedding an reception and all the fun everyone had.

Keith was going to Rome for the weekend but we have not heard from him yet. We are looking forward to seeing any pictures he took and hearing about his adventure. When we receive any of these we will post some to share with our readers. He is scheduled to come back to South Carolina on June 4 th. We are sure this will have been a trip that he will never forget. I wonder were his next TDY will be.

Still Looking At Pictures

Somehow we just don't seem to have any more time now than before the wedding. I guess the yard work takes up a lot of our free time as it seems that the yard needs to be mowed every three days or so. Who was the dummy that put weed and feed on the yard anyway? Well at least we get to enjoy some of the flowers that continue to bloom around the house. These are some of the early blooming Iris that we planted two years ago.

When there is some free time we continue to look at pictures but still have not printed that many as we are not sure what we want to do with them. We did print some and put them in a frame to take to Mom at the home. We wanted to make sure the folks there got to share the memories with her. It helps keep her focused on the present.

We also are working on and off on the scrapbook that we have been keeping for Keith since he went into the Air Force. It has not been worked on for a year as it was put aside for the wedding as well. Now with the wedding and the pictures he has sent from Italy it was decided we better get at this as well since we do not even have pages completed for his move last May..

Kris is as bad as we are. She wants to put an album together but still has Thank You's to finish and both her and Charlie have been working a lot of hours as well. They also are working on some home improvement projects that were put off for other things as well. Maybe we will all be caught up sometime this fall!! Then when someone asks to see pictures we actually can show them without going for the laptop.

Trieste

For those of you following along with Keith's travels he just sent us these pictures from Trieste. Trieste is on the eastern side the Adriatic Sea along the border with Slovenia. Just another tough day in the Air Force.

He also has found a couple more PEZ. He bought 3 Mickey Charity Edition tubes at a rest stop while out sightseeing.

View of the Adriatic Sea

Trieste

Miramare Gardens

Castello di Miramare

Roman Theater

Venice

Keith sent these pictures tonight. I hope you are enjoying them. I guess it's as close as many of us will get to Italy.

San Marco Plaza

Basilica di San Marco

Florence

Just received these pictures from Italy and hope you enjoy them.

Florence

In front of Baptistry

Campanile di Glotto

Campanile di Glotto from the top. It a long way down!

Keith Called

We received a call for our world traveler tonight so for those of you who are interested in what he has been doing in Italy just keep reading.

His group has been working second shift and has had every weekend off since they arrived in mid April. They are staying on base at the base hotel so he has his own room but he does have to go to the lobby to use the Internet. Because it is one of the few wireless spots in the area he does not use it much. He said that it is very slow because so many people are using it. He is going to try to use it to send us some pictures tomorrow. We can't wait to see them and if we do receive some we will share them here.

Last weekend he and some friends traveled to Venice. He actually said they were disappointed as the city seemed dirty and there was a lot of graffiti everywhere. Today they traveled about an hour to the city of Florance. They did a lot of site seeing and visited some of the museums seeing a lot of Michelangelo's work including the statue of David. They enjoyed this city so much they are planning on going there again tomorrow. Actually they will be leaving in just a couple of hours as it is already Sunday morning there.

He has also done some shopping and of course purchased some PEZ on European cards. We knew he would be looking for some of these. Since he is now over 1000 dispensers it's our guess we are now starting on the road to 2000!

The Newlyweds

Kris and Charlie swim with the fishes

Charlie and Kris returned from there Honeymoon with some great pictures and I am sure wonderful memories. They were swimming with stingrays and dolphins. They did a zip line in the jungle and a lot of just plan sightseeing. And as with any cruise enjoyed a lot of great eating and entertainment.

They did however have a luggage problem more than once while on their trip. Their luggage was lost on the way to Florida and they did not get it until 3 days later when it caught up with their cruise ship. On the way home they flew to Philadelphia while their luggage took a flight to Baltimore. Oh well it's all good now!

Now for those who would like to see some pictures from the wedding you can use the link here to watch a 10 minute video made from pictures taken by all the photographers that day. Enjoy

http://uncutvideo.aol.com/users/dad17370/9583818c19f3596abac7fb2d6cdcf5a0?index=0

Italy

We just got a note from Keith. For those who know him he is a man of few words and so was the note. For the most part they are just working. He did say they drove up to the Alps last weekend and he sent us a few pictures. We figured we might as well share them so here are a couple of our favorites.


We are not sure that after two months there he will want to come back to the states.

We wanta go...and we wanta go now!!!!!!!!!! Any one out there with us?

Largo Di Barcis

Claut

San Martino

Things To Do

We continue to be busy around here even when you think that we should have some free time. We did get to spend time with Kris and Charlie for the first time since the wedding. We went to Lancaster on Sunday and took Charlie out to supper for his birthday. After that we went back to their house we we downloaded all the wedding pictures to my laptop. Now I get to go over all these pictures to see which ones we think are the best ones. After a little work taking out all the duplicates we have it down to a little under 900 pictures to look at. From these we have picked about 100 or so that we think best captured the wedding and the reception. I am now trying to put these into a video that we can share with our family and friends. Since I was also given some audio files from one of the photographers I hope to cut these in with the video as well.

So keep watching. Hopefully we will have this video finished soon!!

Made It To Italy

We got a short e-mail from Keith today. The trip to Italy was fine and he did not lose any luggage. This is noteworthy because Charlie and Kris had luggage problems flying to Florida and back again. We are not sure how much we will hear from him as we don't know how much he will be working. We just hope he has some time to do some sightseeing. After all how often do you get an opportunity like this?

For those who are interested Keith is in the Pordenone region. This puts him close to Germany, Switzerland and not far from France.

A Couple More Shots

Still Busy

We still don't seem to have a lot of free time even two weeks after the wedding. I guess that some of that is because we now have the yard work that needs completed. In fact we needed to mow the yard again Saturday night.



We did get more pictures this weekend when we went out to supper with Dave and Donna. They gave us a disk with 170 pictures that they took at the wedding. It is fun to see that each photographer seemed to have a different perspective and no one seemed to duplicate what another had done. This is one of the many they took from the balcony. We still have to see the 3D shots that Hillary took and look forward to see what she has done with her talent. While we are on the subject of pictures if anyone happened to take pictures at the brunch and would like to share them please let us know. We all seemed to be so tired that morning we forgot to take any. As soon as Kris has time to make some decisions on her pictures we will be sharing more of these with everyone. We hope you look forward to seeing these as well. I did see one were two lovely ladies (who happen to be neighbors) were giving everyone their "Beauty Queen" wave from the carriage. I am sure Kris will be sharing that one.



As for our world travelers Charlie and Kris returned home Sunday night from their cruise. They had a great time and have many pictures from their travels. I am not sure we will ever get through all of these. Just as they return home Keith leaves tomorrow afternoon for Italy. We just put another clock on our PC that shows Italian time. He will be six hours ahead of us so I guess most of our communications will be by e-mail. I hope he sends us some pictures as it will give us something to do!!!

Home Alone

Although things are getting back to normal here it also seems very quiet. Charlie and Kris left for their cruise on Saturday evening and Keith went back to SC Sunday morning. Kinda like an Empty Nest all over again.

But we got right back into the grove doing some lawn and garden work on Sunday afternoon. The flower gardens have been cleaned up and the lawn has been mowed for the first time this year. Many of the spring flowers are beginning to bloom and we have seen a lot of our annuals pushing through the ground as well. Now if the weatherman will just give us a little more warm weather we would be truly happy.

We have also been going over some more of the wedding photos. All I know is that after a week I still find pictures I have not looked at before. I guess Kris and Charlie will have a lot to do when they get home. Knowing her she will have hundreds of pictures from the cruise as well. It may be a while before everything gets printed.

Party Time

We continue to look through the pictures from last weekend and thought that you might enjoy some from the reception. I don't know of anyone who did not have a good time. Somehow the 5 hours we were there seemed more like 5 minutes. I still can't believe how fast it was over.

We hope you enjoy these shots.

A Look At The Rehersal

Here is a sneak peek at what we were doing on Friday night. As you could tell on Saturday everything went very well. What a great group of people Kris and Charlie had for their wedding party!

More Photographers Report In

We continue to receive photos from the Paparazzi and are enjoying every one of them. We hope you enjoy them as well as we will continue to post some here over the next few days. These were taken by Kris' other parents John and Jackie.

Karen, Josh and Jackie with Kristin before the service.

Everyone got into the fun!

Can you find the Bride and Groom among all the photographers!

Krysta and Brett's Grand Entrance

The Wedding Is Over

After getting up last Friday morning at 7 AM and going to bed sometime Sunday night we managed to survive one of the greatest weekends any parents could hope for. Charlie was handsome but "Sorry Charlie" Kristin was Elegant!

Everything went as planned and in fact even better that we had expected. The day started with all the girls coming to our hotel room to have their hair done. The on staff hair designer, an old(sorry about the age remark) and dear friend did a great job making all the girls look great. After a quick lunch it was off to the chapel. The service was beautiful and the chapel was the perfect venue adding to the overall feeling of the day. When we finally arrived at the reception it could not have been better. Kristin's vision was fulfilled and all the hard work over the last two years became but a memory.

The best part was that all our family and friends had a fantastic time celebrating with us. Everyone had said the day would go by quickly but for us it was over way to fast. We were glad that we had planned the brunch for the next morning. It gave us a chance to again thank everyone for their love for Kris and Charlie and say goodbye before they all headed for home.

Now we sit here after two days of sleeping as much as we could realizing that there is nothing for us to do with these creative juices that we had flowing for the last two years. This could lead to depression. But then again Kris has been given over 1200 digital pictures that she needs to look at and decide which ones are the best. And this total will rise as not all the paparazzi have sent us their pictures. Maybe there is some work there for us yet!

A great looking group!

Can you spot yourself?

Got the moves!

Last Pre-Wedding Post

As we draw to a close this will be the last chance to post before the wedding. Tomorrow morning will begin around 7am and should end sometime around 12pm on Sunday. We have a full list of must dos to complete before we see all of you at 3:30 on Saturday.

Tomorrow will begin with a final trip to the florist. After that Keith and Alan will load the truck with everything for the chapel. Then it's off to pick up their tuxes and get the room at the Eden. After unloading everything that stays there it off too the chapel to begin the decorating.

Meanwhile back at home the girls will be finishing the floral arrangements. After that it's off to do whatever girls do to get ready. We will all meet up for the rehearsal at 7pm. Then back to the hotel for any final projects. From what I can tell Saturday will just be a blur. I am glad there are lots of friends around to help!

We hope you all have a safe trip and look forward to seeing everyone on Saturday! Till then....