Seasons Greetings! Welcome to the second edition of the Chaffee Chronicle, an annual update on the lives of Evan Chaffee & Danielle Dunn Chaffee. We skated into 2023 by celebrating Evan’s 35th Birthday and New Years Eve in Vancouver. We indulged in three nights of 35 oysters at our favorite restaurant Rodneys, rocked out to the Chain Smokers at the Contact Festival, cheered on as the Canucks beat the Sharks, and traversed the streets of North Vancouver, the VanDusen Botanical Garden, Downtown Vancouver, and Granville Island.

We came back to the states just in time to honor the Wedding of Chris and Lindsay Johnson in beautiful Dana Point on Jan 7th. The New Year also brought in celebrations at Disneyland for D100 and the opening of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway (a project Danielle worked to get approved back in 2018). We sloped into February by warming up our ski legs in Big Bear before Danielle and Paul tackled the mighty Park City.

We marched forward on home construction throughout the winter including designing our kitchen island and premium coffee bar as well as installing all new floors, doors, and stairs. On March 31st, Danielle lost a part of herself as she had her gallbladder removed. But rest assured she recovered just in time for Moving Day on April 25th. Shortly after, we traveled to a land far far away to celebrate May the 4th which set us up to easily adjust to the time zone difference for our next big adventure down under. In Australia we had the time of our lives hopping throughout the country, soaring above the clouds, climbing bridges, and making friends with Joeys.

In June, we celebrated Danielle’s 35th birthday, where else but at the happiest place on earth, before she flew up north to the Disneyland for adults known as Sonoma County for a wine tasting trip with the girls. Meanwhile Evan boarded a plane to visit Drew to celebrate his Change of Command and say Aloha to Hawaii before moving to the Bluegrass State. Through all of our adventures abroad going to concerts, plays, sports games, and more, we realized we wanted to do more activities to enjoy all that our home state has to offer. We kicked off a true Southern California summer by going to Hollywood for the legendary John Williams night at the bowl. A couple weeks later, we laughed our tails off at the Jim Henson Studio Lot where we were enthralled by Puppet Up (a puppeteering improv adult comedy show). In July we saw the infamous Ohtani pitch one of his last games at Angel Stadium and we kicked off OC Fair Season. We throughly enjoyed the walking proximity of the fair where we loved seeing Beck, Phoenix, and the Fab Four. Inspired by the improv we saw at Jim Henson Studios, Evan performed improv for the first time to a sold out audience of 300 in San Diego. Evan credits the success of that evening to watching so much “Who’s Line Is It Anyway?”.

As we wrapped up a summer of endless pool days and Saturdays working on the yard, Danielle’s canoe team A-row-ha won their divison championship while Evan spent a few weeks traveling to Seattle for work thus kicking off our Fall season of US travel. In September, Danielle red eyed to Charleston for a girls weekend celebration which included learning all about the culture through a carriage tour and a fun time spent at the visitor’s center. Next up, we yanked it up to Philly where we explored Amish Country and Lancaster and cheered on the Philly’s with Danielle’s cousins. We high tailed it back just in time to experience the Postal Service at the Hollywood Bowl, which wins concert of the year. In October, Danielle conquered the Concrete Jungle, climbed to the top of the Empire State Building, and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, to celebrate Elizabeth and Brian. Evan rounded out the last of our US trips by visiting Drew in his new home town of Louisville where they traversed the Bourbon Trail and Churchill Downs. In her Leadership role on the Disney Employee Resource Group SALUTE, Danielle planned the Veteran’s Day Flag Retreat and reception (which included a C17 flyover) to honor more than 200+ Cast Member Veterans and brought Paul along for the fun.

We had such a great time bringing in the New Year in Vancouver that we decided to visit our home away from home again for Thanksgiving and Paul’s 75th Birthday. This time we brought along the Dodds and Dunn family for adventures Soaring over Canada, braving the Capilano Suspension Bridge, admiring Vancouver from the look out tower, and bringing in Holiday spirit at the traditional German Christmas Market. We were fortunate enough to be selected to experience Brie Larson as the host of Candlelight to kick off the Holiday season at home. Drew joined us for Christmas this year which encouraged lots of meat smoking including a fantastic prime rib, fall of the bone ribs, and for Danielle beer and pepperoncini marinated chicken. We also celebrated the season by cheering on the Rams as they beat the Saints and continuing the family tradition of Christmas Eve (Eve) at Disneyland and Club 33.

You know how they say the start to your year is representative of the year you will have? With that in mind, we rung in 2024 with our friends and families by opening up our home for a New Years Celebration surrounded by those we love. We are excited for 2024 and all the joy this year will bring. Keep this site book marked for Chaffee family updates as we look forward to sharing more good news here soon.