Bragg Family South

Regular followers of the Bragg Family South blog are accustomed to seeing us in our native element, the woods, and at many historical sites, so the picture above is a two-fer special--a large ash tree growing in a battlefield cemetery on the grounds of Stones River National Battlefield (http://www.nps.gov/stri/index.htm) near Nashville, Tennessee.  This was one of numerous Civil War-related sites we stopped at during our most recent trip (but it wasn't the first--the previous day we had stopped at a battle site named Fort Pillow not too far north of Memphis, but I didn't really get any good pictures there...).  Stones River is not one of the better known Civil War battles, but it was as bloody and nasty as any of the more famous ones, and certainly horribly so to the many unknown soldiers buried there: We were on our way to meet up with Hope's parents in Kentucky so Hope and the kids could take them in our van to their home in Michigan while I took the Pruden's ...

  An alien from another world?  Nope...just Kenny, getting ready for his first swim meet of the year a couple weekends ago... Stephen and Beth were more interested in video games during this meet, and less interested in the swimming, as you can see from the picture above.  Below, Kenny sports a picture of the team mascot, the Marlin: (Don't worry, anxious grandmothers...even permanent marker comes off easily with sunblock!).  Kenny has really excelled over the last couple years in swim team, and it is obvious that he's a far better swimmer than either of his parents: Beth was able to make the Monticello Marlin swim club, too, and competed in her first meet last weekend, doing remarkably well: Stephen's currently in swim lessons, but if he builds the basic skill set like his older siblings, I'm sure he'll soon be swimming for the Marlins, too!  Here are a couple pictures of some of the day lilies Hope has planted at our church in Montice...

For those of you that may not have heard yet, our tried and true 2004 Toyota Sienna with 256,000+ miles on it has FINALLY been retired...we started a trip a couple weekends ago to northwest Arkansas, only to get to the central part of the state and have the transmission start acting up...Given the costs of getting a transmission rebuilt, and the fact this vehicle already had so many miles on it, we took the plunge and purchased a new 2013 Toyota Sienna...we've been so happy with the performance of this brand that we got another one, and so far, we're thrilled with our new van!  Most of you will get a chance to see it over the next few months as we begin our summer travels... Since the last blog we've also seen the kids finish up their school years, including Stephen's "graduation" to kindergarten...Below, Stephen marches with his "diploma": Stephen was quite proud of his accomplishment: Let's hope the Monticello school system is rea...