Bragg Family South

Wow!  A lot has happened since my last blog post--lots of business travel and some annual leave...and a combination of both!  That was the case behind the picture above--I had a business meeting scheduled for late May in northern Minnesota.  With the younger two kids being basically done with their school year, I took the opportunity to drive them up to Wisconsin, where I dropped them off at my sister Lisa's home in western Wisconsin, and their grandparents picked them up: My parents took them to their house in Rhinelander, and I drove on to Minnesota.  My forestry meeting included a field trip to an active logging operation; the picture below shows the red pine poles set aside for further transport and processing: After several days in Minnesota, my meeting concluded and I joined my parents and the kids in Rhinelander.  Below, Stephen helps his grandfather find camping gear which my brother John would use later in the summer: We visited my f...

After years of preparation, Kenny and the rest of his class as St. Mark Catholic Church officially received the Sacrament of Confirmation from Bishop Anthony Taylor!  Here are some more, out-of-order pix: Kenny and Bishop Taylor. My Dad is Kenny's official confirmation sponsor, but he couldn't make it to Monticello...so our friend Ray Mercantel stood in for him... Kenny had more than one reason to be uncomfortable in his suit today--he got a pretty good sunburn yesterday!! Stephen was a trooper... Beth was glad when this finished up--she got cake!

Did y'all know that Kenny is terrified of spiders??  Well, he shouldn't be of this artistic rendering of one at Crystal Bridges Art Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas...but this metal sculpture does have a creepy nature about it!! As always, we've been very busy since my last blog post about a month ago...  The boys have done some Scout camping...most recently at Historic Washington State Park, where they helped with a park clean up.  The first half of their trip, the weather was really nice...the second half, it rained.  A lot!  The picture below is of the boys just starting to unwind after taking their camp down before the storms hit: (That's our newest Boy Scout, Stephen, in the blue on the far left).  Hope and I had joined them on this day.  En route, we drove along a highway that had seen a spectacular tragedy just a couple weeks prior.  A semi loaded with fertilizer had some brake problems--they caught on fire--and the driver had mana...

Look who's starring on television!!  Well, at least for a brief bit on a local TV news show...  Hope, as a part of her job with 4-H, was invited to speak on her programs.  Because March is Archeology Month in Arkansas, she chose to feature her work integrating archeology in 4-H curricula.  She also managed to coax Beth into helping, as you can see... Beth (and the boys) had the week off (our spring break), so I took the day off and we made a family trip out of this...  The kids and I started out in the studio's small "green room" while Hope set up her materials.  Hope then asked Beth, Kenny, and Stephen if they wanted to help--only Beth was willing.  So, she got to make her media speaking debut (the host asked her several questions), which she answered very well! Beth also helped by decorating a clay flower pot as part of one of the props, and helped her mother out with several other aspects of the interview--Hope had just come down with ...