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!

Christmas Festivities

By Christmas we were settled and anxious to celebrate, and oh did we celebrate!! We kicked off the season with the annual family Christmas party at my parents house, complete with cookie decorating, moon bouncing, and christmas caroling. Highlights included my dad standing on the coffee table to direct 100+ people in singing the 12 days of Christmas, and a very competitive ping pong match between the Flemings and the Mitts.
The next day was my Dad's birthday, so we followed our tradition of going to confession and mass at St. Joseph's downtown, which was so beautifully decorated. That night Will and Jacquie threw a party for Nona (whose birthday was a few days before) and Dad in their beautiful newly remodeled historical house.
Christmas Eve came next as we celebrated mass at Blessed Sacrament with the Pattersons. Our whole family was complete--Paul came in from New York, Lauren and Mary from Dallas. We ate our traditional buffet meal accompanied with games and our annual viewing of the Muppet Christmas Carol. Readings from the Bible and The Night Before Christmas followed by singing under the tree ended the night for a long winter's sleep.
Christmas morning was so fun!! Emily (after having a hard week trying to adjust to her new world) was happy practically the whole day and was thrilled about her new pooh bear bike. Later on in the afternoon my mom's side of the family came over to visit. At the end of the night we had a Wii Fit Tournament going with about 15 people. We were all exhausted by that point and I can remember my mom saying "let's have a wii clean up tournament".
Early the next morning we drove to Austin to be with the Danzes and McConnells and had a really great day with a beautiful brunch. The weather was perfect so the kids could play outside while we sat on the porch to chat. In lieu of a present exchange, we read scripture and exchanged keys with personal reflections of how to maintain Christ's presence in our daily lives. Later on we played a traditional boys vs. girls Taboo game and watched football. The following day Eli and I met his parents out at the Rock (family ranch). Emily really enjoys feeding the donkeys and cows and Eli loves to beat Fred at darts. In the morning we went to mass in Fredricksburg after a mini fiasco with the carseat. We couldn't get the straps assembled correctly since we washed the cover because Emily and I got sick in the car. After we took the family out to breakfast, we headed back to San Antonio.

Our Christmas outing with Nona to the musical The Christmas Carol was that afternoon. The performance was at San Pedro Playhouse, and it was really well done. The costumes and set were fabulous! (as well as the actors!) We went over to Nona's for ice cream with the Brian-Fagans so Emily could play with Caroline and Natalie.
Over New Years I took a trip alone--first time in nearly 2 years not to sleep right next to Emily--to go visit my friend Karen in Chicago. We had such a great time together. On New Year's Eve we went to a really cool jazz bar in the Lincoln Park Zoo area with some friends of hers. The next day we went downtown to the Water Tower for lunch and shopping and John Hancock and saw where she works, which is next door to the Sears Tower. We of course had some Chicago-style deep dish pizza...delicious!! Wicker Park is the area where she lives--the up and coming, trendy and young part of the city with lots of cool shops, restaurants and bars. The weather was pretty chilly with snow on the ground, but no new snow while I was there. I had a short trip and came back to Eli and Emily with a bad case of the flu and just felt horrible about leaving them! (although they were just fine without me! :)

For Epiphany we started a new tradition (in case you haven't noticed, my family loves traditions!). There is an old Irish tradition which honors the women of the family on Epiphany--a mother's day of sorts. So all the females of the family (about 16 in town) were invited to Tia's house for a special dinner and blessing of her house.
Soon afterwards we said good bye to my siblings from out of town and were sad to take down the Christmas tree and decorations. Before it was all over, Eli and I had a nice date on the riverwalk to see the lights downtown.

Getting Back to Normal

After a bit of chaos, routines are beginning to fall back into place. Tons of progress has been made and today you'd really never know that Emily had surgery just days ago. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday she just really wanted to be held and loved, and she wasn't her usual cheerful self. On Sunday she started eating like a horse, was sleeping more through the night, and was wrecking havoc on the apartment...the calmness was nice while it lasted! Here are some pictures from the hospital and what her arm looks like today.

Showing off her ankle bracelet

Getting woozy

Being rolled away

In a lot of pain

The wound with dissolvable stitches. It should lay flat in a month.

Saturday was wonderful. This is the first Saturday in what feels like a million years that Eli has been in his pjs at the breakfast table. Let me tell you...this was so weird!! He turned in his final capstone project this week, which made him FINISHED WITH HIS MBA. I admire all those wives out there with children whose husbands are in school full time and work full time. Eli and I have learned to make the most of the 15 minutes a day we spend together. Now we'll have to readjust to being together more often--although Eli's anxious to start a new project now. (we'll see how long that lasts! heehee)

Our friends Katy and Justin had a fall party during the day, which was perfect for Emily (although she was still a little cranky). We were able to see a lot of good friends and their babies, and maybe even for the last time. Our little nephew Aidan was the star of the show with his sitting up and crawling abilities...I love him!

That night we went downtown to a great tapas restaurant for the Capstone Party. I was finally able to meet Eli's client--and new employer in San Antonio!!--and the rest of his class. We had a blast and were exhausted at the end of the night...thanks to Elizabeth for babysitting!

Sunday we met Eli's parents and sister's family for mass and pancakes. Sheri stayed with us until yesterday helping to get things back in order. I have been beyond exhausted lately with Emily waking up 10 times every night and got really behind on laundry, cooking and cleaning. We have 3 weeks left until we move to San Antonio, so Sheri watched Emily while I was on the phone finding new doctors, transferring medical files, interviewing moving companies, etc. etc....Moving is such a pain.

Look at that skinny little arm!

Here are some pictures from earlier last week with Sophia. We went to a great play area with a bunch of foam climbing things...the girls had so much fun!

They loved crawling through the "tree trunk"

And got stuck too. :)

Birthday Weekend

Last week was super busy and went by super fast! Eli has been enjoying the Cowboys games on his new TV and had company over to watch the Monday night football game. On Tuesday I had a baby play date over here with Teresa and Aidan, and Katy and Caroline. Caroline cracks me up...she loves to carry her toys in her mouth so she can cruise around. She and Emily pretty much fought over every toy the whole time. Aidan is growing so much too, as he can hold his head up and has really good trunk support. What a sweetie!

On Wednesday night we hosted (a very lonely without the Kanes and Alexanders) supper club. I made my mom's King Ranch Casserole and Rebecca brought some fantastic peach cobbler. Sophia is very mature and officially is a toddler!

Friday evening we made our way to San Antonio to spend the night with my parents. I just realized that somewhere down the line I stopped referring to my previous house as "home". Eli had a meeting for his capstone class in San Antonio the following morning, so it worked out great to spend a few hours hanging out with my sisters. Teresa scored some points at her volleyball game and afterwards we had a birthday steaks for Eli on the balcony. Of course no visit is complete without a dip in the pool! Emily loves to swim!

From there we jetted off to Austin to meet the Danzes for the birthday party of Wilma, Felix, and Eli. The whole family got together to watch the UT game and hang out. Lots of fun! Emily loved playing with her cousins and all of their toys. She was very content the entire time--it always surprises me how much Emily thrives outside the home. I guess she takes after her parents because she's definitely not a homebody! Grandma and Grandpa have a fun setup for the grandkids in the backyard--I can't wait to see Emily playing with her cousins in the future!

Yesterday we celebrated Eli's birthday with dinner for our Dallas family. Of course I made Eli's favorite--steak and potatoes!

Our Fabulous Trip to Tahoe

We left for Lake Tahoe to meet the Danzes on Saturday after Eli finished his final. Emily was great on the flight, despite the 2 hour delay on the runway. In fact, she behaved herself like an angel the whole week even though her routine was "relaxed" due to the 2 hour time change!

On Sunday after mass at a church with a stunning view of the mountains, we met up with Eli's grandparents and the Raffs at the hotel restaurant's superb Champange Breakfast which sat on Lake Tahoe's shore. We had a relaxing day with some naps to make up for going to bed around 4am our time! Eli and I laid out on the beach to watch the sun set over the mountains and just thought that life couldn’t get any better than this.
The whole family went on a catamaran ride around the lake on Monday. The scenery was honestly breathtaking--the pine trees line the mountains leading down to the crystal clear water. They even served wine and cheese on the ride!

Early Tuesday morning we took a short 2 mile hike around Spooner Lake. It was interesting to see the different flowers and birds of the mountains. There were tons of my favorite trees--the tall and thin "quaking" aspen with leaves that look like they're glistening from afar. We spent the rest of the day at the pool.

Eli and his dad went for an intense bike ride up the mountains on Wednesday. They basically rode straight up the cliffs for an hour along about a two foot path—if they took one wrong move they could have fallen off! Eli says the pictures don’t give the views justice, but they look pretty amazing to me. Meanwhile, Sheri, Emily and I took a walk to see all the huge estates on Lakeshore and then I got a relaxing massage and Sheri babysat Emily. Later on that day we went rafting on the river that feeds into/out of? the lake with Joseph and Ken. For a Level 1 it was pretty scary with a little bit of white water, almost capsizing, getting stuck on a few boulders, etc. Very fun and quite a workout!

Thursday we left Emily with Chris to go play some putt-putt with the family at a really neat old-school course. Grandma and Grandpa were the best with rivals Eli and Joan. I of course was probably the worse, but hit my only hole in one on the last shot and won a free game! We took Emily to the beach afterwards for some good ol sand-eating and chasing the waves. For dinner Joan and Ken took us all to another great restaurant on the Lake—we celebrated Emily’s birthday there too.

Friday rolled around quicker than ever. We went to Thunderbird Lodge, once owned by millionaire George Whittell during the mid 1900s. Whittell also owned 25 miles of Lake Tahoe’s shore. His estate is very secluded and unique—with 600’ of tunnel below the main floor, there is also a dungeon, an indoor pool, an elephant’s house, a card-playing room with secret exit, a private beach, and an attached boathouse housing his $3 million yacht. We spent the rest of the day at the beach and had a nice dinner with Chris and Sheri. Then we hit the casinos and won back the money we’d lost the whole week plus more! What a great ending to a great trip!