The Powell Family Blog

My little man turns 3 on February 11th this year!!! I can’t believe how fast time goes by and how much he’s grown in 3 years. He’s such a big boy these days! Here’s some pictures from his Superman/Batman birthday party we had this weekend. He had 9 of his friends come help celebrate at the bowling alley!!

Braydon and his best friend Ethan

The cakes I made

B licking the icing off the candle

And a few pictures from his last birthdays to show how much bigger he is now!

2nd Birthday

1st Birthday

We’ve had quite a bit of snow this year so we’ve tried to make the best of it.  Here’s some pictures of the Powell family playing in the snow! Braydon loves the snow!!!

…was so much fun! Braydon had a blast and got entirely too many presents. I love Christmas especially when you get to spend the whole day playing with all your new stuff and spending time with your family!

Daddy got a fabulous new waffle maker and made us waffles that morning…they were awesome!

B outside riding his new bike!

Last weekend we took Braydon to the Natural History Museum to see the dinosaurs.  He is obsessed with dinosaurs right now!  It was all of 5 degrees outside that day and not many people were out and about so the museum was pretty quiet.  Braydon absolutely loved it!  His favorite was the T-Rex.

November 12th was our 4th wedding anniversary.  Chris was unfortunatley out of town this year for it but before he left he had a bottle of Tommasi wine signed by Mr. Tommasi for me!  It happened that he was here visiting the US base and signing bottles for anyone who wanted one.  It’s just too bad I can’t drink the wine now!!!!

Yesterday, I told Braydon that I would sit on the couch with him and watch a movie after I finished cleaning the kitchen.  He ran over to the couch and got 2 pillows ready for us.  When I came to sit down he asked me to lay down on the couch so we could snuggle.  As we were laying there he told me “Mommy, I love you so much and I love to snuggle with you, too”.  It was the sweetest moment ever!!

This year for Halloween Braydon decided that he HAD to be Superman (with muscles)!  He was so excited to get dressed up and absolutely loved his costume.  We went to our friend’s house for some wonderful food and snacks before we headed out to trick or treat.  I was such a fun night!

Grandma & papa came to visit us at the beginning of October. Braydon was very excited to see them. We didn’t do a whole lot while they were here. I had to work most of the time since I’d taken a week off with Ragan visiting. We walked around downtown Stuttgart when they first got here and it was such a nice day!

 I had wanted to take them to Volksfest, the local beer festival, but it was raining the day we’d planned to go.  We did however, manage to find a restaurant that one of mom’s friends had recommended, which was not an easy task.

Mom and Dad did borrow one of our cars and spent a few enjoyable days in France. Amazingly, I didn’t take any pictures while they were here but mom was kind enough to send some of hers!!!

In September, my best friends Ragan & Kris came to visit.  Chris was unfortunately out of town with work while they were here but we a wonderful time.  The first day they got here we went to the pumpkin festival in Ludwigsberg.  They make all sorts of displays out of pumkins  and have lots of different foods all made with pumpkin as well.  We also bought a bottle of pumpkin wine which was very good.  It was a very sweet bubbly wine…not what I usually drink but very good!

On Monday we attempted to go to the former concentration camp in Dachau which we found out when we got there is closed on Mondays.  I should have researched that a little better!  Anyhow, after the fail at Dachau we headed to Salzburg, Austria and spent the day wandering around town.  Salzburg is Mozart’s birthplace so we saw his home, did some shopping and drank some beer.  Then we had a fabulous meal at europe’s oldest restaurant.  The service was not so hot but good company and good wine can make for a wonderful evening!

On Tuesday we went to the Eagle’s Nest (Kehlsteinhaus), Hitler’s chalet that was given to him on his 50th birthday.  It was a cloudy day so the view wasn’t as good as it could be but there were moments that it opened up so Ragan and Kris could appreciate the view!  Braydon had a nice time and managed to fall asleep on the bus ride down. 

We had a nice lunch there before we headed to Garmisch.  We managed to get stuck in a stau in between Salzburg and Garmisch for quite awhile.  It’s always interesting to me to see the Germans all get out of there cars in the middle of the autobahn to smoke and chat with other drivers during a stau.  We finally made it to Garmisch and walked around town and then had a nice dinner.

Wednesday, we went back to Dachau (which was now open) in the morning and then that afternoon we went into Munich for Oktoberfest. 

Braydon got to ride on a train and then we were lucky and managed to find seats outside of one of the tents, which is the only way to be served a beer.  Ragan and Kris were excited to have a few beers and Braydon and I shared the largest pretzel I’d ever seen! 

We stayed in Garmisch again that night.  Kris was really nice and offered to put Braydon to bed while Ragan and I had some girl time in the hotel bar.  After B was asleep we all hung out on the balcony and drank beer from the mini keg we bought.  It was a lot of fun, there’s nothing better than spending time with close friends!!

Thursday we went to Neuschwanstein Castle.  Ragan and Kris almost missed their tour (B and I have done the tour multiple times) due to a really, really slow horse carriage ride.  It was comical…people walking were passing us!

Friday we spent the day in Rothenburg, a well-preserved medieval town.  I made sure Ragan and Kris tried a Donner Kabap for lunch and the “famous” schneeballs.  I love Rothenburg…it’s such a cute town.