Happiest Place on Earth

This Christmas The Braun/Harris Family took a adventure down to Disney World. Tess knew we were going on vacation but she had no idea where we were going. She opened her first Christmas presents at the airport and it was a set of ears and a couple of books based on several rides in the park. She was so excited when she saw the ears that she was ready to get on the plane and get the party started. Once she put the ears on she barely took them off.

We started our vacation in the Magic Kingdom but we only had time to ride Pirates of the Caribbean and Big thunder Mountain before we had to head to Dinner and a show. We knew by our experience in LegoLand that she would love Rollercoasters but I guess I didn’t know how much. She wanted to do every ride multiple times and because it was Christmas time in the Park and everyone was off school the park was ridiculously crowded we could only do the rides once. She was fine because we really didn’t have to wait in that many lines and there was so much to do that she had a blast.

We headed over to Hollywood Studios for dinner, my mom had booked a character dinner. Clayton and I weren’t sure how Tess would react to the characters because she hasn’t been real keen on them in the past. She surprised everyone when she saw goofy through the window and wanted a picture. We got in line immediately and took a picture. She broke the ice and all she wanted to do after that was take pictures with all the characters that she saw. We waited in some of the lines but if they were outrageous we moved on.

As we ate dinner more characters would move around the restaurant and she had to take a picture with every one of them. I think this was a good way to start our Disney vacation because she was able to see a bunch of the characters and decide on her own terms if she wanted to take pictures or not without waiting in a line and then get up there and her deciding that she wasn’t ready for a picture.

After dinner we had reserved seating at the Fantasmic show, which was the only night time light show that we saw the entire time we were there. She enjoyed it even though there were a couple scary parts. She knew magic Mickey from some of her shows and she was happy to see all the princesses. After the show we went back to the hotel to unpack and sleep so that we could get up bright and early and do it again the next morning.

Epcot

Tess was so excited to get to the park that she headed out down the hall on her own. Each time we left the room we had to make sure that we had everything because it was a long walk and no one wanted to do it again unless absolutely necessary.

We had several fast passes that my mom had pre-scheduled along with a couple extra that my dad had scored the night before so we were set to go on all the rides that we wanted. Tess was really excited to go on as many rollercoasters as possible. We spaced them out throughout the day with a couple small things in between. I think her favorite was space mountain, I was a little worried about her siting along and it being in the dark but she loved it and would have gone again if time allowed.

We also spent some time meeting the characters in Epcot. There was a location that had a bunch of characters in one place and the line was not too long so we ventured in and she was thrilled.

We also found a photo booth at the end of one of the rides and she decided that she wanted to take some pictures. We decided to crash her pictures and make it a family occasion. These photo booth pictures are included in the photo package that my mom bought so the pictures come directly to the Disney app which was pretty cool.

We spent most of the day at Epcot riding the rides and walking around the countries. Tess was not too thrilled with the countries and if we go back with just her we will probably not go back to the country section of Epcot until she gets older. On our way out we of course had to get the obligatory Epcot family pictures.

Magic Kingdom

I don’t have that many pictures from our day in the Magic Kingdom mainly because I was enjoying the day with my family. We started our day off with the obligatory Castle family picture. We all had our Disney shirts on for our Christmas eve picture!

We saw the main street fire truck as we were walking in so Tess and Clayton had to stop and take a quick photo. Disney used to have a cool place where you could look at all the firefighter patches in a case on the wall and you could purchase a Magic Kingdom patch, but it was been converted to a meeting place for a magic game they now provide where you pay and receive clues. We were a little disappointed when we walked in.

Tess and I rode the carousel, the line moved pretty fast and the ride wasn’t that long. Everyone else was waiting for something else so we snuck in and wait in the line. Everywhere we go no matter if there are a million other things to do she sees a carousel, she wants to ride it.

Most of the family also rode it’s a small world, this isn’t my favorite ride but it’s a staple of Disney. One of the books that we bought Tess was based on this ride and it’s nice to do it once. Now when we go back we won’t have to do it again. The sad thing is this is a pretty simple ride, not much to it and they really haven’t kept it up. The dolls need some maintenance and some of the effects weren’t working.

I love how Disney decorates for every time of year, but Christmas is my favorite. I love the Castle at night.

Animal Kingdom

Most mornings we had to wait for a bus to get to each park, sometimes we would get to the bus stop right when a bus was leaving or had just been there. This morning we knew it wouldn’t be too long since we were staying practically in the Animal Kingdom Park. Tess also knew it wasn’t going to take that long to get to the park.

We took a lot of family pictures today at the Animal Kingdom, probably because it was Christmas. I think that being at the Animal Kingdom on Christmas was the best because there isn’t that much to do at the park and we needed to be in Disney Springs for Dinner later that afternoon.

We started off with the Safari and I still love seeing all the animals. I love that Tess loves animals as much as I do. We could probably do this safari every day that we were there. The animals were all out and about moving around so it was a great time of day. We even had to stop the tour a couple of times because the animals got in the way and wouldn’t move.

After the Safari Tess had her first ice cream of the whole trip. I don’t know what it is but ice cream just tastes different at Disney, I think it’s the shape.

We found some characters while we were walking around the Animal Kingdom. Tess had been talking about Pluto for a couple of days so we knew that we had to find him before we left. She was so excited when it was her turn to take a picture that she just couldn’t contain her smiles.

Our last stop before heading out was the new Pandora ride, we had some time to kill so both Tess and I decided to pose for the camera. Like mother like daughter we know how to turn it on for the camera.

We had a short and sweet day at the Animal Kingdom but it was action packed.

Hollywood Studios

Hollywood Studios is probably my second favorite park behind The Magic Kingdom. I wish they wouldn’t have gotten rid of the sorcerer’s hat but what can you do? We took several family pictures in front of the only iconic buildings left, tower of terror and the Chinese theater. Tess was done with picture taking she was ready for some rides.

The kids minus Tess rode the rockin roller coaster, I can’t wait for Tess to be tall enough to ride this ride. I think she will love it. She hasn’t gone upside down yet but I think she will enjoy it as much as she has enjoyed all the other rides. All the kids went on Tower of Terror. As you can see I am watching Tess to make sure she doesn’t freak out because we are free falling and she looks a little scared but when we got off she said she loved it. She was like that wasn’t the tower of terror that was the tower of greatness. 

We saw a couple of shows and did a couple of other rides throughout the day. Tess enjoyed herself. She had to pose next to the car that was in Cars and she had to take a picture with the Star Wars guys. Overall we had a great day at Hollywood Studios.

Magic Kingdom

Our last full day at Disney was for catching up on things we hadn’t been able to ride and do anything a second time that you wanted. We split up and some of us stayed in the Magic Kingdom all day and some went back to Hollywood Studios. Tess rode Dumbo and some of the rides for littler kids which were fun and a little break from the bigger rides we had been riding. We rode the Toy Story ride again and caught up on some shows that we had missed that we thought Tess would enjoy.

The first time that we saw Stitch the Pictures did not turn out, the photographer did not have her settings correct. So we went back and were able to take some pictures and these turned out better than the originals. The whole Harris Family likes Stitch but Tess and Clayton love him.

One of Tess’s Christmas Presents was an appointment at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. The family had a Princess Dinner that night so Tess had an appointment to be transformed into a princess for our dinner. She loved the experience and loved getting her hair and make-up done.

We headed on over to the Princess Dinner from Magic Kingdom to Epcot, in the Monorail. This was the first and only time that Tess was able to ride the Monorail, we had been riding buses the whole time. She had to first take a picture with Belle and then the other princesses would make their way to the table. At one point during the dinner there was a princess parade, she and the other princess walked around the restaurant strutting their stuff. She was so happy to see the 
different princesses.

After the Princess Dinner we made a quick change into our normal clothes because she was tired of being a princess, its hard work.

We headed out the next morning, back to the real world. We had the best time and Tess asks just about once a week when we can go back.

December: A month of Lights, Snow and Feasts...

We had a pretty busy December, It seems like we had something to do every weekend. We started off the month with visiting the Zoo for Zoo lights. Clayton responds to the Zoo on a regular basis so they stopped by the station and handed out some free tickets to the event. They added more lights this year and more exhibits.

Some of the lights were the same but there were a lot more lights and there was a completely new glow in the dark exhibit. Tess loves Christmas lights and animals so it was a fun evening. My parents and Diana joined us and we made it a family fun night for Tess. She always enjoys spending time with her family so it was a good time had by all.

We have had some crazy weather this year, we knew that a cold front was coming in but when they started talking about the possibility of snow we never thought it would actually happen. Clayton of course was working because he tends to be at work when crazy weather comes in and Tess woke up to Snow. Not sure if that will ever happen again but she was so happy. Tess and Rosie ran around outside while Lexi stayed inside. Tess’s elementary school even allowed them to play in the snow in the morning, it’s not that often that there is snow that sticks to the ground in Texas.

In November we took family pictures but we didn’t get the pictures back until sometime in December when we saw Kevin and Mona. Its takes a little while for Tess to warm up but once she does she loves her time in front of the camera.

The following weekend we decided to visit Santa’s Wonderland with Mona and Kevin. We have seen Santa’s Wonderland outside of college station for years and have been meaning to take a trip. We picked a weekend in December made the trip out. It had been raining all day and we talked about not going but we had already bought the tickets and we weren’t sure if we would be able to use the tickets any other time. We bundled up and headed out.

There is a hay ride that you take through the lights and the bales were soaking. Mona and I’s butts got soaked and once we got done we headed straight to the fire and try to dry and warm up. We looked around after the ride and got some hot chocolate. There were still a lot of people and not a lot to do unless you wanted to shop. Tess had no interest in a picture with Santa so we headed out and ate dinner.

On Sunday afternoon it was time to clean up the house and get ready school and work. Tess was eager to help clean up and I was eager to share to workload. She helped vacuum the coach while I cleaned up the kitchen. Now if only she wanted to help all the time.

We had a couple more days left of school before we headed out on vacation and Clayton started to not feel very well. It turns out Clayton had the flu and the doctors put both Tess and I on preventative Tamiflu. Clayton and I think that the Tamiflu upset Tess’s stomach because she threw up the night before her last day of school. Since both Clayton and Tess were sick I worked from home and Tess missed her last day of school. She was a little upset until I reminded her that we were going on vacation and that we didn’t need to go to a school party.

Like I initially said, our December was jam packed and it ended with a vacation to the Happiest place on earth.

Get your Fat Pants Ready…

This year Clayton had to work on Thanksgiving, so Tess and my parents ventured out and watched the parade. Tess had never seen the parade and it had been since I was little. We had a lot of fun but it was cold. We thought that we had arrived downtown in plenty of time but there was a ton of people already lined the streets. I actually found a couple that had spread out on the curb and I asked them to move over and Tess and I were able to sit on the curb. She loved watching all the floats and it was a really good morning.

There was a firefighter band that was pretty cool and Tess enjoyed their music.

We headed over the Clayton’s station to say hello after the parade. We stayed for a minute and then headed hope to start cooking. While mom was finishing up the cooking Tess and I enjoyed some snapchat fun. This child loves snapchat.

On Friday we ventured on our annual trip to Lampasas. Clayton got off work and we got a lat start so we got in a little later than normal. The weather was awesome and we spent most of the time outside as much as possible. Tess loves the ranch and it is the one place that she spends all her time outside from sun up to sun down and we have to tell her that its time to come inside to eat. She loves spending time with her family and looks forward to this weekend every year. It’s Clayton’s favorite weekend also.  

When we got back we decided to put up Christmas. We were going to be away for Christmas day so our decorations were very limited this year. I will say that the tree is a hit though. Tess and Rosy love the tree and I love that hey  love it.

Its fall in Texas, You know what that means? Nothing, absolutely nothing! It’s still 95 degrees outside!

The only way we know that it is fall around here is the date on the calendar, the weather doesn’t change and it sometimes actually gets hotter. Clayton was promoted to Engine Operator earlier in the year but had his promotional ceremony in September. The city through it together and didn’t send out the email till a week before. I convinced him to go and both of us took the morning off and headed into town to attend the ceremony. My parents also attended the ceremony and watched Clayton receive his certificate and walk across the stage. We took a couple of pictures and we decided to skip the reception and eat lunch instead. After lunch we all headed our separate ways, Clayton and I headed back to work and my parents headed home. I am glad he attended the ceremony, I will always try to recognize his accomplishments.

Throughout the years we have attended many Astros games, we have seen the guys through their LAstros years and this year we were excited to be a part of their winning season. We even were able to attend a post season game. We went with my parents to an ALDS game and watched the Astros beat the Red Sox. Tess even got into watching them at home and could tell from the score whether or not we were going to win.

That same weekend we headed out to Dewberry farm with the Hughes Family. Tess loves playing with the girls and we enjoy spending time out with Olivia and Allen. It was a hot Sunday and when we go back we need to choose a cooler day. The girls had fun running around doing all the activities.

Tess even got the hang of the rope swing and didn’t want to leave, there was one swing and the girls were taking turns. She was a little apprehensive at first but once she took that first swing she was hooked and all she wanted to do was swing.

 There were a couple of slides but her favorite was the slide mountain. The girls were able to go as many times as they wanted and it wasn’t actually that crowded at the time we were there. We let them slide a couple of times and then we headed to the next thing.

One of their big attractions is the Candy Cannon. They sound the alarm at different times throughout the day and then they shoot candy out of the cannon. Clayton was pretty excited because the Cannon was an old firetruck and the alarm was an old friction alarm. The girls got a couple pieces of candy.

We did one more activity on the way out and then we called it a day. Tess had a lot of fun and was glad that we were able to go.

In our house when fall time rolls around it is time to start getting ready for Halloween. Clayton has been wanting to do a haunted backyard for years and he finally has enough stuff that it would work. He had a couple of neighbors that agreed to help and everything was planned out, except the weather. We started looking at the weather on Sunday and it was looking like rain but we were going to wait until it go closer. I took a half day on Halloween to help set-up and we realized it was going to be a rainy soggy Halloween night. We decided to have a Haunted garage instead of backyard and everything turned out great. Everyone that came by loved the idea and enjoyed themselves. Some high school girls were scared so much that they ripped down the black covering. Tess loved the fact that everything was decorated and talked about it for days. She dressed up as Sally from Nightmare before Christmas. Overall it was a good Halloween this year.

To round out our fall we attended the Keith Elementary School Sock Hop. It is an annual fundraiser put on by the school and the kids get to dress up in the best 50’s gear and play games and win prizes. Tess wore a poodle skirt that my mom made for me when I was younger. We had a lot of fun playing games and Tess enjoyed a night out amongst her friends.

Harvey…

Who knew one name could cause so much damage. Harvey made landfall three separate times in six days but the biggest issue was when it made landfall it rapidly weakened and slowed down to a crawl. The weather channels had been watching the storm and had projected the weakening and the slow creeping across the state but no one could have prepared for the amount of rain that this storm dropped on Houston and the surrounding areas. The city received at least 30 inches of water and some places got up to 60 inches and a majority of this water came on August 26^th and 27^th. The city shut down for a week and there are people still trying to piece their lives back together.

Clayton went into work the morning the storm hit, he wasn’t able to make it all the way to his station but he was able to make it to a station. He worked it and he saw it and I am grateful that he made it back home to me in one piece. He at one point one driving the wrong way down 59, pulling people out of the flood waters and housing them in his ambulance until their transport arrived and then he led the way to the GRB which was the shelter for everyone that no longer had a place to call home. He is truly my hero.

While Clayton was hanging out at the station figuring out his assignment they looked outside and saw this dumpster traveling down the street. The current was so strong that it was able to carry a full dumpster along. They eventually pulled it into a parking lot with the pumper.

The city decided to switch up the shift schedule and Clayton had to go back into work early. They called in 2 shifts at a time and were asking that they work 48 hour shifts. They soon realized that they had too many people working and let Clayton’s shift go home only to turn around and come back for his normal shift 24 hours later. He got off work and was able to rest when everyone else started going back to work. Since the city had called 2 shifts in at a time there was a rare opportunity to have a picture with all four shifts at the station, this probably wont happen again.

We had some visitors at our house, one of my oldest friends had been evacuated an her husband needed to go back to work so they needed to come back to town came and stayed with us for a couple of days. We needed to get out of the house one day and really couldn’t go that many places so we feed the ducks and we headed to chuckecheese. The girls had a fun sleep over and it was a good break from the news!

We weathered the storm, we managed not to get flooded. We were flooded into our neighborhood for a while but that’s about it. Tess’s school was delayed for 2 weeks so she had the longest summer ever. It was a long and rough week for Houston, but as the saying goes we are Houston Strong. 

Look out Kindergarten, Here I come!

Tess started Kindergarten this year. We had a meet the teacher event and Tess was able to meet her Teacher and get comfortable with her classroom. We then had a huge storm hit and the first day of school was delayed for 2 weeks. It was the longest summer ever and it seemed like it would never end.

School finally started on September 11^th and Tess was excited to finally go to school. I took the morning off and Clayton made sure to leave work right at 6:30 so that he could get home in time to walk her into school for her first day. Tess had a great first day and she is really enjoying big girl school.

Vacation Time

This year, Clayton played in the World Police and Fire games in LA and we decided to make a family vacation out of it. Tess was so excited to go on a family vacation since we didn’t go on a vacation last year. Since we made a vacation out of the trip we stopped in San Diego first and then drove up to LA.

After we landed and dropped off our luggage at the hotel we all headed out to find something to eat and then toward La Jolla. We found a great parking spot and then got out to walk around. One of the biggest tourist attractions of La Jolla is the seals and sea lions. We walked the shore and were able to climb down to get a close up view of them in their natural habitat. This was a pretty cool way to start off the trip, the weather was nice the seals/sea lions were awesome and the cherry to top it off was we all got some gelato before we headed back to the hotel to shower and rest up for the Zoo in the morning.

Our first full day of vacation was spent at the San Diego Zoo. This zoo is set up so nicely and has buses and recommened routes that even though there is a lot to cover and it expands a lot of space we felt like we were able to cover what we wanted. We started our day on the guided bus tour which was included in our ticket and provided a nice way to see the zoo and hear the best ways to visit certain animals. Tess thought the bus tour was the whole zoo and was ready to leave but once we started seeing more animals she was glad we stayed. The weather was great, a lot cooler than Texas. We had a lot of fun walking around and enjoying the animals and spent the majority of our time outside.

We stopped in Legoland on our way from San Diego to Los Angeles. This was Tess’s first amusement park and she had a blast. Legoland is nice because the whole park is geared toward the younger crowd. Throughout the park there is also a section of the park called Miniland which is landmarks completely made out of Legos.

We started out the day with Tess riding her first rollercoaster. I was a little worried that she wouldn’t like it because she sometimes over thinks things and talks herself out of situations before letting herself experience them. She enjoyed the coaster so much she immediately wanted to ride again. I was glad that she enjoyed the coaster because there are more of them in her future.

The rest of the day was spent riding various rides, activities, and playing with Legos. It was crowded so there were some rides that we decided not to stand in line. Tess was not really excited about the lines, she really wanted to go from ride to ride without the lines. Overall Tess had a blast and was exhausted by the end of the day.

There was also this one ride that was called the scorpion that had different difficulty levels and would move around over a body of water. Tess and Clayton did the ride and Tess had a lot of fun. They did the lowest difficulty level and they basically just moved up and down and around. The other difficulty levels turned people upside down and rotated them around.

We all had a lot of fun at Legoland and I am really glad we made the trip to San Diego. Now on to Los Angeles to finish up our Vacation.

We had to work in our tourist activities around Clayton’s soccer games. He was guaranteed three soccer games and depending on how the team did then there could potentially be more games.

On our first morning in LA we headed over to the Police Academy so that Clayton could pick up his credentials and his packet of information. His game was later that day so we headed to lunch and then over to the fields. The guys played a good game but in the end the other team ended up winning. Since Clayton had a later game we decided to head over to the Getty Center. We walked around looking at the paintings but we also had fun in the family room and doing the kid scavenger hunt. We also hunted for fossils in various rocks around the grounds. This museum does a good job of making a very adult area kid friendly. We came back to our Air BNB and relaxed before dinner and then grabbed something quick to eat.

Clayton’s second game was also right around lunch time so we had time to eat breakfast at our house and relax a little before our day started. The boys played all over LA and this time they played on a field in Griffith Park. The boys again played well and this time they were able to outscore their opponent. Since we were already in Griffith Park our thought was to make a day out of it and walk around the observatory and see a program at the Planetarium. By the time we arrived there were no parking spaces left and as we were driving around trying to find one Tess let us know that she needed to go to the bathroom so we decided to skip Griffith Park and head to the Tar Pits. It actually wasn’t crowded and it was like we had the place to ourselves. It was really interesting to see the group of tar pits that have seeped up from the ground in Hancock Park. The Museum is dedicated to researching the tar pits and it’s pretty cool to see everything that has been trapped in the pits over time. We spent time walking around the museum and having fun family time.

The last day of soccer was an early one and it ended up being the prettiest soccer complex. The field was at the base of a mountain and a perfect place for a family picture.

The boys had fun and played their hearts out but in the end this tournament wasn’t theirs to win. They didn’t advance but they had a lot of fun playing and meeting people from other countries along the way. I am glad that Clayton decided to play this year.

After the last soccer game we headed over to the California Science Center which was huge and had 4 major exhibit areas. We made our way first to see the Space Shuttle Endeavour, which was really interesting and cool to see it up close. We then watched an IMAX show and walked through the museum. Tess had a lot of fun looking at everything and doing various activities.

Friday was one of the best days on our vacation and it was also one of the longest days. We headed down to the Aquarium of the South Pacific which is one of the best aquariums I have ever been to. We had a ton of fun walking through and seeing everything. 

This aquarium has a lot of kid friendly activities and 3 different levels along with an outside space. We watched the fish being fed along with keeper talks for Seals and Sea Lions and another talk on Otters.

Tess also overcame her fear of touching sea creatures and she went to several stations and touched several different creatures. I was so proud of Tess because I also have a fear of creatures and I am glad she was able to play with the animals.

We also spent some time at the Queen Mary but didn’t get any pictures. We had a really good tour guide but I think most of us had wished we had been able to get on the ghost tour.

On Saturday we met up with one of my mom’s old coworkers in the morning. We went to the original farmers market for lunch and walked around for a bit. We also had tickets for the TCL Chinese Theatre tour. The theatre is still really nice inside and the most beautiful part is the ceiling.

We also walked around Hollywood boulevard and found some pretty famous hand and footprints. Tess also put her hands in some pretty famous people’s handprints.

After our afternoon of fun we headed out to the Dodgers game. Our intent at the time was to see a game against who we thought might be the Astros' opponent in The World Series. Tess insisted on wearing her Astros' shirt to the game and of course she had to get her pretzel. To be honest since none of us had a vested interest in the game it was pretty boring and we left around the 4^th inning and headed to the Santa Monica Pier.

Tess really wanted to see the water and wanted to get wet but she didn’t realize how cold the water was going to be. We let her change into her swim suit and she played for a little bit and then she was ready to play at the pier. We did a couple of activities and then Tess was ready to call it a night. The pier was a good way to end our vacation.

We decided to head home a day early since we had done everything in LA that we had wanted to do. We were all tired of being away from home and Tess had a camp that started Monday morning. We flew back home Sunday and got back late. We had an awesome vacation and I am glad that we decided to turn Clayton’s soccer tournament into a family vacation.