Danefest 2009!

This week in my continuing ed class, we learned how to post videos on our blogs (among other things, of course!). I have been wanting to learn how to do that so I could post a video from Danefest. Before we get to the video, I should tell you about Danefest.

For those of you who don't know, Dane is my nephew (my sister Jenny's middle son) who died very suddenly on 2/25/05 at the age of 23. That is him in the picture above. How much cuter could he be? Such a tremendous loss. No words can describe how much he is missed by us all. I will be posting about Dane often on this blog, I am sure. Anyway, we had a gathering of some his friends and family the August after he died and this gathering, called Danefest, was held at a White Sox game. That was the year that the Sox won the World Series, you might recall (Cubs fans don't like to recall that). We decided it was about time for another one...finally, four years later.. so we gathered again at US Cellular Field this past August.

We had tshirts with "The Dude still abides" on the back. One of Dane's nicknames was The Dude (from the movie "The Big Lebowski"). We also had a tribute on the jumbotron pictured above and here is a group shot. It was so awesome to be together with other people who love and miss Dane. A good time was had by all. Looking forward to doing it again, but hopefully we won't wait another 4 years.
Last but not least, here is the video of Abbie and Wayne and other Danefesters grooving to "You Should be Dancin" at the game. We love you, Dane! In the words of O.A.R., "we miss you, our friend, oh so patiently"