Day 1 - Part deux

Me trying to get a picture of myself wearing part of the Valentine's Day gift from Chris; a request from Chris... that's as good as I can get right now love.

The little dude.

Sweet Miss Taylor Eve

Running in their Crocs... recipe for disaster.

Austin trying his best to get Taylor to look at the camera.

As many of you know, I am in school right now... yes while Chris is away. I am taking a photography course and I wish it were as enjoyable as I had thought it would be, but it's more of a hassle, uninformative, elementary and just a nuisance at this point. Hopefully that will change when the rest of the class understands how to work Manual mode on their cameras a little better :/.

I took the kids the the World War II Memorial here in Annapolis to fulfill one of my assignments Friday and was able to get a few captures of them as well. I was not expecting inquiries from my little guy as to what the monuments were and why they had been put there... Austin wanted to know all about memorials and WWII... tough time to explain that to him, but I managed to inform him about fallen heroes and war without scaring him. Hmmm yeah ...

Chris emailed me a quick note this morning, informing me that he was in Italy at last, still on the aircraft and preparing to leave for Qatar shortly. No word since 7:30 and no news is good news at this point in the game. I will update the blog if and when I hear more.

Until then, enjoy the pictures :). Much love, Liz

An Update

Hi All, this is Chris writing from Germany. It's been a tough go since I left Connecticut with delay after delay. It's easy to be a little annoyed and slightly upset with the situation but that doesn't do a lot of good.

I left Connecticut on Wednesday afternoon and as I write this on Saturday evening, I am still roughly halfway. We landed at Ramstein, Germany on Friday morning where we let some passengers off. We reboarded and took off, heading for Aviano, Italy. Shortly before landing, I heard the landing gear of the aircraft lower and then shortly afterwards the pilot gunned the engines and pulled the gear back up. "Missed approach," I thought. Which is weird because they're not all that common among airline pilots. We circled around the airport for a while and then did it all over. Gear down, waiting, waiting...full power, gear up. "Another missed approach!"

At that time they came on the intercom and said that there was a problem with the ILS (Instrument Landing System) at Aviano and we were headed back to Ramstein, about 45 minutes away. We landed and got off the aircraft where they had us wait for buses to transport us to a hotel an hour and a half away. Long story short, they were not able to get into Aviano today either but are looking at options. Perhaps Verona, Italy or someplace else. Apparently their transit passes are only good at certain airports at certain times so there are not a lot of options. Additionally, there are some security issues.

So tonight I am staying in Darmstadt, Germany. A cool little town that I spent some time in 2007. I am actually staying in the same hotel I stayed in in 2007 as well but am too tired to go out. Try again tomorrow... Hope all is well with the rest of you.

Chris

By the way, I have taken some pictures but while I have my camera, the cables to connect it to the computer are in my checked bags, sitting in the belly of an airplane 60 miles away. Yes, I have clean clothes :-)

Tough Day - Day 1

We were all a little tired today... late night dropping Chris off at the airport, settling fears and drying tears until long past bedtime. This morning my two little bugs did not want to wake up. I was able to capture some pretty cute images, daily sights for Chris and I to love... a sight I know he'll grow to miss seeing and a sight in which I know you all will cherish and appreciate too. I really fancy having this blog private, it allows me to open up more than I usually do in my posts and pictures. Thanks for being devoted readers over the years and even through my not-blogging days/weeks/months...

Enjoy these little memories from our day.

:: Liz ::

Departure

Chris made it out of Connecticut just fine and as you read in his post, had a layover in Baltimore that lasted well beyond 24-hours. The kids and I were able to hurry down the coast from Connecticut before he left last night. We got 5 hours more together, but saying goodbye the second time was even harder than the first.

I took some photos of him getting ready to leave from Connecticut. No words can be placed with the feeling of seeing him in uniform, walking away in the airport.

I think Taylor put it best when she came into our bedroom around 9pm last night holding her hands up and looking around. I asked her what was wrong and she just said, "There's someone missing mommy. Someone is missing... Something is missing." Hopefully these first few days are the toughest... for us all.

Here are a few images from his first farewell. Will have some more soon from our Day 1 without Chris at home.

:: Liz ::

I Made It!!!...to Baltimore???

This is Chris, in the first of (hopefully) several blog posts. I left Connecticut today, leaving Liz and the kids there. They're having a great time at Cathie and Jamie's, who have been excellent, supportive and gracious hosts (as always). They'll head back to Annapolis on Thursday. As it goes for military rotator flights, I was scheduled to leave tonight out of the AMC terminal at BWI for Ramstein, Germany before continuing on for Italy and eventually Qatar. As luck would have it, I arrived in Baltimore tonight only to find that my flight was "delayed" for a full 24 hours. C'mon people...seriously?! Thanks for the advance notice...I assume this was a complete surprise...ah...whatever.

So here I am, sitting at an airport hotel no more than 20 miles from home. I considered going home for the night but realized that it was far too much hassle than it was worth, especially considering that the house is empty, and I am tired.

On the bright side, I hope to see Liz and the kids tomorrow for a bit if it works out. Am scheduled to check back in for my flight at 8pm, so tomorrow will be a long...long day.

Another day on the hill

Chris was able to join us skiing today which allowed me to take a few more pictures of the kids in action. It was great spending time together on Chris' last day before deployment... and what better way than to ski!?

Chris is a much better ski instructor than I am and had Taylor making run after run in no time. Austin was almost to perfecting his stops, but we still have a little work to do on control. We will get there before the season is over I am certain of it.

Enjoy the pictures...

:: Liz ::

Orders

Hello everyone,

Chris's official orders just dropped. He will be departing tomorrow out of the Connecticut Air National Guard, flying through Baltimore and then over the pond to Qatar. I made a map for everyone who does not know where Qatar is... I did not know when he first told me, I am fully admitting this, yes. So if you did know, I don't mean to be a bore...you are just smarter than me (that's not a tough one), in the military or very smart and in the military... ;)

We are getting a bit of snow while staying in Connecticut. I am certain Chris will get out tomorrow, but not so sure if I am willing to risk driving home with the kids on nasty roads. The good thing about freshly fallen snow, the skiing conditions will be even better today than they were yesterday :).

Enjoy the day!