Diane, different people have different preferences regarding working in DPP or the Elements Raw processor, and regarding DNG. You don't need to convert to DNG to do your work on Raw files in Elements, since version 9 does support all our Canon DSLRs. Some people convert everything to "future proof" their Raw data and backup the CR2s as well, though, like you mention.
Take your time. One thing that will be helpful is to carefully compare your results in DPP to what you can do in the Elements Raw processor because DPP is quite different in how it gives you a "starting point" that is very much like the out-of-camera jpeg the camera would give you and this can be very handy for doing quick conversions and such. So your current workflow may in fact suit you best -- work in DPP for your basic Raw processing, use it for conversions that don't need further image editing in Elements (you can convert to images for the Web, printing, etc, right out of DPP) and then when you need the abilities of the Elements pixel editor you make the conversion to a tiff and open it in Elements.
Elements does have the Organizer tool, though, that you can actually use separate from the Raw processor if you wish to keyword images, set into collections, and such, or you may in the end decide that you are happy with the Elements Raw processor -- it does have some tools that can go beyond some of what DPP is able to do. unfortunately, DPP and Elements don't "share" Raw processing info so at some point it becomes an either-or choice -- you process an image in DPP or you process it in Elements and the final outcome will be from one or the other, but it will all be up to you to decide what works best for you.
My personal approach is to use Lightroom as the "home base" and to occasionally use DPP for its capabilities to do a quick snappy conversion, and to resort to Photoshop only occasionally.