Here comes Santa!

Kase was talking about Santa for almost a month. He really really wanted to see Santa and said that he was going to sit on his lap and tell him that he wants trains and golf clubs for Christmas. I assumed Kase was going to get there and panic. But of course we needed our annual Santa visit. We were in The Woodlands area visiting my family for Thanksgiving so we decided to visit Santa there. We got there pretty early right when the mall opened on Saturday and guess started waiting in line. After about 20 mins and no one actually taking pictures with Santa an Elf finally came by and told us that the camera was broken. About 10 mins later they got it working.. but Kase was already running out of patience. 15 mins later we were almost to the front of the Santa line and Kase was still very excited and sure that he wanted to see Santa.

Here is a shot of Santa reading to the kids while they were working on the camera.

He did much better than expected. He ran up and gave Santa a great big hug and a high five. Then once Santa put him on his lap he froze. He didn't scream and cry like past years but he didn't say a word and just looked at him. Santa kept talking to him and asking him if he was good boy and what he would like for Christmas. Kase finally gave in and said " I want Red presents" Santa laughed and said what would you like inside those presents and Kase said "Toys." So very open ended. He really wouldn't smile for his picture either, but better than in the past years. About 5 minutes later he said "mommy I do that again?" of course the line was very long so I told him he would get to see him another day.

Here is the final result!

South Padre!

Hey Guys,

I am sorry for not updating the blog for a while. I had some very weird issue where I couldn't access Blogger or view my own blog it was really really odd. So I downloaded a new Internet browser and it is working now!!! YEA!!!

At the beginning of June we took a family Vacation with Barry, Ginny, John and Kaylene to South Padre. We all rented a condo at Isla Grand and had a GREAT time! Here are a few pictures from the week!

The Gang under the Umbrella.

Barry and Ginny at Dirty Al's!

Uncle John and Aunt KK

Daddy and the Boy!

We had a great dinner at Dirty Al's. We order big platters of seafood. Kase ate fried Calamari and oysters. Strange!

Meet Fred. The sand dolphin... Kase destroyed him!

I Love the Beach!

I love my Wake Board!

Oh Never mind I don't like either :( This will be a great one to show to any of his future girl friends!

Disney World Part 2!

This is what Kase looked like after day 1 at Disney. He slept pretty good that night.

On Day 2 we work up early and went to The Animal Kingdom Park. It was so much fun! We headed straight to the safari ride hoping to see alot of animals out in the morning. Unfortunately we didn't get to see the elephant herd and the silly lion was asleep. All I could see was a bunch of hair on top of a rock. lol We did get really lucky and saw a couple giraffes walking really close to the truck.

After the safari we took the train out to Rafiki's planet watch and saw Rafiki himself. Kase was scared of the big monkey. Oh well.




After all that Kase said that he really wanted to see Mickey again so we headed to Camp Minnie Mickey to visit. We stood in a pretty long line to see Mickey but were able to visit with both Goofy and Donald pretty quickly. All those pictures were on Disney photo pass so once I get that CD I'll post some more of those cute pictures with the characters.

After nap time we decided to go back to the Animal Kingdom lodge for a wonderful dinner at Jiko. That is a great restraunt! We ate there a few years back when Chris and I went to Disney and decided we liked it so much we had to eat there again! 2 thumbs up for sure.

The next day we visited both Hollywood Studios (in the morning) and EPCOT. We thought we would only do 1/2 day at Hollywood Studios, becusae according to Disney.com they had all of the Playhouse Disney things shut down for the redeisgn to Disney Jr. We actually talked about heading to Magic Kingdom for another day instead but decided oh why not we'll see what they have for the kiddos. We are SO glad that we decided to go any way and actually needed alot more time then what we had. Disney had the makeover compelted early and were doing Test Audiences for the Disney Jr. Live on stage. So we made it in to one of the first shows. Then after the little Einstiens made an appearence. Kase was in heaven. He got big kisses from both Annie and Leo.

The longest line we waited in all week was to see Woody and Buzz. Who would have thought but Kase kept asking where were Woody and Buzz so we had to see. At least the area that we had to wait in was pretty entertaining.

After a fun day at Hollywood Studio, we left headed back to the hotel for a nap then headed to EPCOT. We at a great dinner at Rose and Crown pub. We had a couple beers and Kase at meaty macaroni. He really enjoyed that meal. I really need to actually figure out how to make that for him at him. We also rode a few rides and then found a place to watch the fireworks show. The show at EPCOT is pretty impressive.

This is the view of the castle at Magic Kingdom from our hotel. Sorry the picture quailty is so bad but it was AMAZING at night. You could even sit on the beach at the hotel and watch the fireworks.

Disney World!

We took Kase for his 1st Disney World trip the week of his 2nd birthday! We headed out Monday Feb 28th. We were little nervous about Kase's first plane flight. He was a champ!! We had a 2 hour lay over at IAH and then made it to Orlando at about 3. We stayed at the Polynesian Hotel which was perfect. Right on the monorail route out the front door. Out the back door was the boat to the Magic Kingdom and to the side was the Ticket and Transportation center. We were able to get to all the location SO easy. We will for sure stay there again!

It was a very long day but we were all excited and ready to do something. We made a visit to Down town Disney. We visited the Lego store and save the Dragon made of Legos in the lake. Kase LOVED the dragon that kept his attention for almost an hour. He still talks about the big dragon in the lake.
We then ate at a really cool place called T-Rex. It is like the Rain Forest Cafe but Dino Themed. Kase had a cautious respect for the Dinos and stayed a good distance away. As long as he didn't have to pet him he was fine :) I couldn't get him close enough to any of the Dinos to get a good picture.

The Next day was our big day at the Magic Kingdom. It was so Magical! It rained for the first half of the day. We rode Buzz's Space ranger spin several times since it was indoors. About 11 it cleared up and we were able to find Mickey and Minnie. I was nervous that he would be scared of the costumes but he LOVED them. I have some cute video that I will post once I can get it off the Iphone.

We also got him the Mickey Ears that he enjoyed. He wore them every day that we were at the park and a few days at home.

The Tea Cups and Dumbo rides ended up being Kase's Favorite rides. He still talks about wanting to go back and ride the tea cups. He even figured out how turn it and make it spin. I got a little dizzy but the faster we spun the more he loved it. We have a little dare devil on our hands.

Check out Disney World Part 2 for more fun in the other parks!

Blogger Slacker

Ok... So we all knew I was a blogger slacker... However today I was surfing the net, visiting some friends blogs and decided to look at mine. I realized I haven't posted anything at all since Halloween. So I think I've officially become the biggest blogger slacker ever! lol


The Braden Family has been quite busy over the last few months since October. We've had a busy Thanksgiving, Christmas and now its already Feb of 2011. I've been working ALOT of extra hours at work the last few months with all the really high priority projects. I'm hoping that after Feb things start to slow back down. Over the last week Kase has been sick so I haven't been on the computer much at all. I figure it would take forever to put up all the pictures that I haven't posted so I'll pick a couple of my favorites. (Actually to tell you the truth I haven't even put the pictures from Christmas on my computer yet).


Since we have all been so busy with work we are lacking family time. So Chris and I decided to take Kase on an adventure for his birthday! We are flying to Disney World on Monday Feb 28th. We are so excited and actually ended up with pretty good reservation on such short notice. We'll be back in town on his birthday which is March 5th. Kase is so excited that he gets to see Mickey for his Birthday! I also told him that he is going to see Buzz and Woody and he is very excited about that too. We have been teaching Kase the names of all the other Mickey Gang so that we are prepared for the visit. Kase loves watching Mickey Mouse Club House and is kind of crazy about Goofy, I'm hoping we'll be able to catch Goofy around Disney somewhere.



Here are a couple pictures from recently!

A couple of pictures from the cotton bowl party!