Bragg Family South

For some, "March Madness" implies a college basketball tournament...for Bragg Family South, it just means yet another insanely busy month!  Pictured above is one of the highlights of our crazy month--as President of the Arkansas Archeological Society, Hope had the privilege of joining Drs. George Sabo (on far left) and Ann Early (far right) at the ceremony with Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson (tall smiling gent) declaring March as "Archeology Month" at the state capitol in Little Rock. Even before March started crazy, we were knee-boot deep into kid activities, including this scouting hike (above) we took on our hunting lease just south of town.  We taught the kids a variety of things, from wildlife and outdoor safety to geology and environmental awareness...  We also had a nice little "shore lunch" (below) with scouts and families: One dreary Saturday, we took Stephen up to Little Rock with us for some shopping (Kenny and Beth were at othe...

Well, so not all of this blog post will have actually occurred in February, such as the Pinewood Derby that Stephen won (pictured above), nor some of the robotics competitions given below, but close enough... More on the Pinewood Derby later...Much of the last month has been spent with our boys (both Stephen and Kenny) participating in various robotics competitions with their schools or 4-H clubs.  Since Kenny's occurred with his school at various locations out of town, we didn't get any pictures of him in action.  But we got a number of Stephen and his team with the St. Marks Catholic Church 4-H club.  Below are Stephen and his teammates working on their remotely controlled robot, for which they assemble themselves out of part kits: These robots are programmed and built to do a variety of tasks in a competition that pits teams from across the state.  You may or may not be able to tell from the picture below, but they are trying to lift or push the color...

Nothing like a snow day to get caught up on some home projects, including blog updates...The several inches of snow that fell overnight wouldn't amount to much in the Northwoods, but here it means Bragg Family South stays home today.  So, I start this continuation of the 2017-18 holiday season adventure with the beginning of the trip--a performance of the Nutcracker by the Moscow Ballet in Little Rock.  We drove from Monticello and checked into a hotel right next to the concert hall, after which we joined the crowd for an entertaining performance: Believe it or not, this was the first time I've ever sat through the entire Nutcracker (live performance or movie version)!  I enjoyed it, as did most of the rest of the family (with exception of Kenny; more on that later).  We left the hotel very early the next morning to drive all the way to Madison, Wisconsin.  En route, we stopped just outside of St. Louis, Missouri, to visit an antique mall that always int...