Danner Family Fun: Weekend in Syracuse

Left the Omaha house mid-afternoon on Friday with the ultimate destination of Syracuse, NE - home to my great friend Karena. Made a stop at Plato's Closet (a 2nd hand store) looking for a few more dri-fit exercise shirts. I found two and was excited about that. Heading South, I pulled into Louisville State Recreation Area to check it out. A group of my friends had gone camping there this past year, and luck be have it the Jeep I am currently using has a Park sticker. Pulled in, made the loop around the campsite, parked, and walked around for a little bit. I headed into Louisville itself as it was rather warm out, found a little ice cream place, grabbed a strawberry shake, and pulled in at the City Park to enjoy my shake and read a little. Grabbed this cool photo of this building and the railroad.

My friends Karena and Andy purchased a house in Syracuse this past year, and this was my first time visiting their new place. Syracuse is where Karena's family lives, actually just a few blocks down the street from her new home. First thing, we headed over to her parents' house for some supper, which included some sweet corn on the cob courtesy of her grandparents. Yummy.

Karena showed me around her house after that, then we decided to go on a little bike ride. We walked up the street to her parents' house to borrow bikes, and her younger siblings decided to join us. Here's our fun evening family bike ride group photo: Zach, Kaitlyn, Kandice, Karena, and me.

They took me through some neighborhoods down to the City Park, which we looped around. We also stopped for some random fun and photo opps. Here we are crossing a bridge over a little stream at the park.

Karena had this awesome idea for the kids and I to each place ourselves in one of these spaces in the gazebo. Love it!

I took this one of Karena and her siblings.

We had to stop at the swing set. I sure love me some swinging. Girls on the swings here.

That's my friend Karena and me - the beautiful goofs that we are. :-)

I enjoy this one Zach snagged of me on the swing. Has some movement to it. I love swinging!

Then, they took me down to their school park, where we just messed around a bit.

Andy's (Karena's boyfriend) parents came to town from Durant, IA for the house-warming party. We led them out to Karena's grandparents house in the country, where they would be sleeping for the weekend. Enjoyed some beautiful sunset colors and clouds in the sky over the fields of Otoe County and looked through some family photos at Grandma Bonnie's house.

Andy and his brother were sleeping down in the man cave (basement), Karena and I shared the master bedroom, and her sisters decided to sleepover on the couch. Rolled out of bed about 8am and decided to go on a run. Took my phone with me to snag some photos along the way. I made one of my runs around Newman Grove, Osmond, and Omaha, so why not? :-) The large nutcracker you see on the top-left was actually built by Karena's grandpa.

We girls baked some cookies in the morning for the upcoming afternoon house-warming party. I took this little artsy photo of Karena, Kandice, and Kaitlyn working on the cookies. I did help, too, and they all turned out great!

After sharing some cups of coffee together, Karena took Andy's mom and myself to the local thrift shop. She knew how we both liked doing that sort of thing. The thirft shop in Syracuse, NE is housed in the old doctor's office. It was a tad creepy walking around the rotunda and trying on some clothes in what used to be a patient room. haha Fun, though! We all scored a little pile of books each. 50 cents each for the ones I found. My little shelf of books is growing. ;-)

After a light lunch, we took Andy's parent and brother to the best ice cream place in town - Jo Bob's. I had been here once before when I came down with some friends for Karena's hometown Germanfest a few years ago. Good stuff. Karena and I were twins and ordered a small dish of vanilla ice cream with Krunch on top. This crunch mix is quite famous at this little dairiette. Mmmm.

After some finishing touches on setting up the house including running to her dad's shop for a table, some chairs, finding a table cloth, and setting out the food, the house-warming party began. Friends and family made their way by. Here is a photo of Karena and I with two of Karena's best friends from high school. I have hung out with both of these great ladies before - Alissa and Holly.

 There was a nice turn-out, it was fun to see the house, some good snackage, lots of conversation, and we even played some volleyball with the new set that had been gifted to Karena and Andy. One of her friends from work, the high school friends, the little siblings, Karena, and myself partook in 3 sets of 3-on-3 volleyball. We had a lot of fun with that in the front yard.

We headed back to the parents' house for supper again that evening. I had thought about heading back to Omaha after the party, but I decided to stay when Karen invited me over for supper again. No hurry to get back to Omaha, so I might as well take in all that I can with the Danner family - some good friends. Supper that night included more corn on the cob, some foil-packet grilled potatoes, Snicker and apple salad, and a caramel apple cake Karena's friend Alissa had made. Yum yum yum.

Then, a game of Monopoly took place on the kitchen table. Karena's parents, Andy's parents, Karena, and me. Quite the game that lasted a couple of hours and changed course like crazy. We had a good time with that. Karena's dad ended up winning. I made it longer than anyone would have guessed considering I owned three lame properties that weren't making any business and spent a lot of time in jail while others were building houses. haha

Time for sleepover #2. All of us girls were brushing our teeth at the same time, which was fun and pretty cute.

This time the girls slept on the floor in the master with Karena and me, so it was a true girl slumber party. Karena and I even laid in bed chatting for an hour or so, not going to sleep til after midnight.

Woke up around 8 again and went for a little 2.5 mile bike ride. This time I headed down around downtown Syracuse. Good little ride before enjoying a nice little breakfast. I had a few Crunch Wheaties with some leftover fruit in the cereal bowl. This actually worked out well. Playing around, trying new combinations, and finding some new likes.

Karena kept saying how I had been a big help this weekend with setting up and all. We finished cleaning up, did some dishes in the morning, and returned the chairs, table, and some dishes. Thought I might head back to Omaha, but then trip extended a bit more. The family invited us to join them on a little trip to Lincoln for some Menards shopping and a movie. Here you can see Karena and me in the middle seat (Andy not in photo) and the three little kids in the back. We ended up watching Despicable Me 2, which was okay. Funny parts, some good action, but once was enough. Was a fun family trip though. Funny watching all of us walk around Menards, Famous Footwear, and Dollar General. haha We also had some lucnh at PepperJax. The first time I went there was last summer, when I visited Andy and Karena at their Lincoln aparment a few weeks before heading off to American Samoa.

My time in Syracuse with Karena kept extending, but I am so glad I stayed for every minute of it. Not every day I get to spend this much time with one of my best friends. I was the Danner "adopted cousin" for the weekend. A great weekend in Syracuse with lots of Danner Family Fun. :-)

Last thing. On my way back into Omaha, I stopped at JC Penny's where I had a $15 coupon to spend before the end of the month. Walked in and started looking a bit. Next thing I know a voice is saying over the intercom that the store will be closing in 10 minutes. Ah man. I better hurry up. I don't wanna drive back tomorrow. Stumbled upon some straight blue fabric jeans/pants I had been looking at for a while. The clearance price read $2. "I sure hope they fit." Ran over to the dresses next and found a few I grabbed and took to the fitting room. 6pm, but I was on my way to the checkout with a pink dress and the blue pants in hand. Based on my calculations with the $15, off I intended on paying about $7 for the two items combined. Yes! As the lady is ringing me she said that I would be getting an extra percent off for using my JCP card. Oh boy, my lucky day! Total = $3.96. What a great end to my little adventure, all in 12 minutes in the store. :-)