Moving on up!

I can't believe the wedding is less than two months away!!! This will be a very exciting weekend - on Saturday I am going for my first wedding gown fitting. My dress finally arrived in the continental United States, I ordered it in January. My mom is coming down to join in on the fun!

And we got some good news today (well good news for us, not so good news for another couple). The Nittany Lion Inn has two ballrooms, The Boardroom and The Ballroom. The Boardroom is where we were scheduled to have our wedding because the Ballroom was already booked. Its a bigger, nicer space. Well it turns out that couple decided not to get married after all, so we are moving on up to the Ballroom!!! It has a bigger dance floor too, for those of you planning to do the Running Man this is key. :)

And don't forget to book your rooms - after July 8 our room block gets released to the general public and the discount rate is no longer valid.

SCUBA Diving in the Keys

Gina and I are back from a short vacation in the Florida Keys. We flew into Ft. Lauderdale Thursday morning and then drove down to Summerland Key to stay with my brother, Marc. Gina finally got to meet Marc's dog Dallas.

Friday morning Marc, Gina, one of Marc's friends and I did two dives on Looe Key. This is a fairly shallow reef that gave us a maximum depth of about 25 feet. The reef here is in pretty good shape and we saw lots of interesting sea life. Here are a few pictures:

French Angel Fish

Sting RayI have to look this one upBarracuda

Looe Key was nice, but the highlight of the trip was getting to dive on the USNS Vandenberg. The Vandenberg was sunk on 5/27/09 to create an artificial reef. It opened for diving on 5/30/09. We went out to dive the Vandenberg on 6/7/09 so we were some of the first divers to get to see the wreck.

The Vandenberg is about 7 miles from Key West and was sunk in 140' of water. The deck is at about 95' and the super structure starts at around 50'. Gina, Marc, and I did 2 dives. The boat was tied into the middle of the ship between two large radar dishes.

Our first dive we went to the stern of the ship and had a maximum depth of 89'. The dive lasted about 34 minutes. Our second dive we explored the bow of the ship and even did a quick swim through on the bridge. Our maximum depth on the second dive was 97' for 37 minutes. Here are a few pictures:

One of the radar dishesGina and I near the center of the ship

On the bowGina on the bridge
Near one of the radar dishes

Marc took most of the pictures using my camera. They turned out pretty well.

The trip ended way too soon and we flew back to DC on Monday. Gina and I had a blast and can't wait for more diving on the honeymoon. We are going to have to head back to the Keys sometime soon too.

Less than 2 months until the wedding!

The responses have started coming in!

Well Jeff and I bet on who the first response would be and when it would arrive. Its a good thing Jeff is the one going to Vegas in a few weeks and not me, because he won!! Carrie and Jacob Mellin (aka Mr. and Mrs Old Man Mellin) were the first to respond!!! (unfortunately Mickey Mouse won't be able to join them at the wedding...)



And they are coming (we should hope so, they are both in the wedding). Carrie and Jacob will get a prize, and of course Jeff will get the pleasure of constantly reminding me that he won!

Its officially official now!

The invitations are in the mail!!!! Jeff and I spent a very frustrating half hour waiting in line at the post office, only to find we needed extra postage after all for invitations. Good thing we checked before we sent them!! Look for them in the mail this week, its getting so close, a little over 2 months away!

Things to do while in State College

A lot of our guests are arriving in State College a little early so I thought I'd provide some suggestions on things to do while you are in town. State College offers a little bit of everything so you should be able to find something fun to do.

• Visit the All Sports Museum. The museum is basically the Hall Of Fame for Penn State sports. You can see the Heisman Trophy won by John Cappelletti, Olympic Memorabilia from Penn State's 125+ Olympians, the Lombardi and Maxwell Awards, etc. Hours are 10am-4pm on Friday and Saturday and 12pm-4pm on Sunday. The museum is located at the southwest corner of Beaver Stadium opposite the Bryce Jordan Center. A $5 donation is the suggested admission.
• Get your picture taken at the Lion Shrine. Probably the most famous spot no campus and really close to the hotel.
• Hike Mount Nittany. This will give you a great over look of the PSU campus and Beaver Stadium. It's a pretty easy hike (1000 yards to the top and up 600) feet and will take about an hour. Details for planning the hike are here. Don't forget to bring some water!
• Go shopping downtown. There are lots of different shops along both College and Beaver Avenues. Plus some shops on Calder Way between College and Beaver. Downtown State College is a short walk from the hotel. If you decide to drive down be careful where you park so you don't get a ticket.
• Visit the Palmer Museum of Art. Eight of the eleven galleries at the Palmer Museum display art from the museum’s permanent collection of more than 5,000 objects. Included are American and European paintings, drawings, photographs, prints, and sculptures; contemporary European and Japanese studio ceramics; Asian ceramics, jades, paintings, and prints; and objects from ancient European, African, and Near Eastern cultures. Hours are 10am-4:30pm Tuesday-Saturday and Noon-4pm on Sunday.
• Hit the links. The hotel is literally right across the street from both the Blue and White golf courses. Both championship courses have been newly renovated within the last 5 years.
• Get ice cream at the Creamery. Best ice cream you will ever have.
• Visit the Pennsylvania Military Museum in Boalsburg. "The Museum recounts the story of Commonwealth citizen's who served our country in defense of the nation." They have a collection of vehicles and small arms. And they have guns from the Battleship Pennsylvania.

Dresses are in!

Its been slow on the wedding planning front, invitations go out in a couple of weeks, other than that not much going on. Jeff and I have a busy June planned...and I am hoping no one ends up in jail when the guys go to Vegas in a month! Don't worry - the girls will be partying it up in DC!

And the bridesmaids dresses came in today!!! I was nervous to open the box, I never actually saw a sample dress in the colors we selected, but they look awesome, very shiny!

Starting tomorrow, Jeff and I are landlords. The condo rented, a lot of our energy has been spent dealing with that. Hopefully it will all go smoothly!

Well that's all for now!

Three months to go

The wedding is three months from today! The remaining time is sure to go very fast. We're finally getting things settled down now that Gina has moved all her stuff into my (now our) house. Almost everything is unpacked now. We'll also be taking a very quick trip to the Keys to SCUBA dive next month. This will be a good warm up for the honeymoon where we'll be spending a week diving on Little Cayman island.

We'll keep updating the blog as the wedding gets closer. Start thinking of any songs you'd like to hear at the reception so we can let the DJ know.