Summertime Fun

Can you believe it's almost August? AUGUST!! Us Danzes love summer because we love to keep insanely busy with traveling and super awesome summer projects. Us Danzes also despise summer because it goes waaaay too fast and we're left doing a bazillion procrastinated chores. Like 6 loads of laundry. A day. Fun.

So what on earth have we been doing that's so super awesome??

Celebrating!!

On Father's Day the kids helped me make pancakes with whipped cream from scratch (if you have not tried this, you must. bisquick + cool whip just ain't cuttin it these days)for Daddy's traditional breakfast in bed. Best dad ever right there.


We also drove out the the Rock to spend Father's Day with Eli's dad and family. As per usual I dropped the ball on getting a picture with the Danzes, but I got lots of sweet Daddy pictures playing with his fearless kids. Thank goodness there's a gate there.

The next weekend we went to Austin to celebrate Great Grandpa Leo's 80th birthday. You know those times when your toddler and preschooler skip naps? By 6pm they're rather fun to be around. I mean, seriously, throw in a fancy restaurant and relatives who actually want to converse and you've got a real party!

But we wouldn't miss this for the world. After all...we did name our firstborn son after Great-Grandpa!


My parents, sisters, and Nona came over to celebrate our 5th anniversary and my 27th birthday. Have you ever tried fondue? YUM! We broke in our new dining room table handed down from my great great aunt...if that table could talk!!


The Harkins reunion came next--in Florida! 28 hours total drive time and the kids did GREAT. I had no idea it was even *possible* to have a tolerable road trip with my kids. We survived with a couple things: movies, dramamine, junk food, and about 10 presents each from the dollar store. Then being the center of 45 Harkins' love and attention was just enough to spoil them completely rotten. Life couldn't get any better! The waves were pretty intense compared to the TX coast, but that didn't stop our sand-diving-wave-jumping-football-throwing kids.

Leo turned 2 at the beach along with his 2nd cousin Mae Rose. He was a champion candle blower-outer.


But Wait! There's More! We spent a weekend in Ft Worth to congratulate my smarty pants sister Lauren's entrance into MEDICAL SCHOOL! We're so proud of her hard work and perseverance.



We've had the best summer ever and fully intend to enjoy every last second of the 2 weeks we have left before school starts!

Feeling Beachy

Emily's always had a less than happy experience with the beach. I'd say she down right *despised* the beach year after year. The torture would always commence in the 2 hour car ride with a good car sickness induced vomit and ensuing panic attack. Then the sand would sneak into every crevice of her sticky sunblocked body. It was hot, too windy, and just too treacherous a terrain. Mean ol' mom forced her to do everything else in life--eat some foods other than peanut butter crunch cereal, bathe every once in awhile, sleep a couple hours a night--and darnit, I was going to force her to at least tolerate the beach while the rest of us had fun. We'd roll out the red carpet for her. She had her own tent, spare towels, treats galore, and she'd sit there just scowling. Forget about going into the water. No sirree. There's seaweed and that saltwater burns my eyes.

But alas, this year was a bit different.

Pig tails did the trick. I knew the day would be good when I saw the bounce in her step. As we got out to the beach the questions started flowing. "where are the stairs to the swimming pool? why are the birds flying about so crazy? why must the sand burn my soles off my feet?" Sensing a little anxiety, my mom took the kids straight to feel the waves wash over their little pudgy toes. And that's when it all started.

***The Golden Moment***

For the first time in our little girl's life, she was truly happy the whole day long. You've never seen so big a smile plastered to her sweet little face. She and Leo spent the next 6 hours running around like they had just won the lottery.

They sat comfortably in the scratchy sand building the great wall of China. They loved digging up the tiny mussels (she-shells) and watching them dig back into the sand.

Leo couldn't contain his excitement of the pinwheel on steroids. Flying the kite was even better.

Do you see that face?! This kid was in heaven. He would throw his head back and kick his feet as hard as he could.

The best part of all: sleeping under the setting sun.


Next time we go, we'll bust out the smores. They wont know what hit them!