Bragg Family South

The picture above is of John Hurlburt and Beth opening presents. We had a real nice visit with Lisa and her husband John, brother Bill and his friend Anders, mom and dad, and Bob. Mom and dad were slightly delayed by a surprise snow storm, which dropped 6-8 inches of snow over much of northern Wisconsin. Unfortunately, the kids didn't have time to play in it much, since we had to leave the next day for Michigan. It did make for a pretty start to our drive, however... After another pretty drive across the UP to lower Michigan, we have spent the last week or so with Hope's family. The "twins" in this picture are, of course, Rick (the tall one) and Kenny (the cute one), wearing matching pirate t-shirts... Christmas Day we joined them at her Uncle Dave Pruden's house, where the kids got a lot more time playing with cousins: We also visited another part of Hope's family (the Clark's) that evening, with more cousins and gifts for the kids. During the rest of the...

It is New Year's Eve, and I am sitting at Rick and Ann Pruden's house relatively early in the morning, as the rest of the family sleeps. We leave tomorrow morning to return to Arkansas, and given how busy it is upon return from these kind of trips, I figured I'd be best off updating the blog now. We had a great vacation, even though both Hope and Beth had colds. Our travel went very well on this trip (at least so far), with good road conditions and no big vehicle surprises. We had a nice visit in Madison with Laurie, Mark, John, Jim, and Bob, and another fantastic dinner at Morel's. Hope had drawn Jim's name for the Bragg family gift exchange, and gave him the gift every consummate Badger fan needs this year--Arkansas Razorback gear!! That is a plastic Hogs hat he's wearing in this picture... We arrived at mom and dad's house in Rhinelander to find virtually no snow, but the kids were able to have fun outside anyhow. Kenny especially loved playing in the san...

I know I said that last weekend's post was going to be the last for the year, but we took some more Christmas-type pictures recently, and thought we'd share them... Also, I want people to notice that this year, we do have a Christmas tree up, even if it is only artificial... Merry Christmas to all y'all, and we hope to see you soon!!

Kenny and Beth got a treat this morning. While Hope was wrapping up a yard sale she and some friends of hers were having, I took the kids to a little park near downtown that has the local railroad tracks running through it. The railroad was sponsoring a "Santa train," where Santa comes to a number of local towns via rail. We watch the engines slowly pull into the "station" and Santa and Mrs. Claus got off, and kids lined up to tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas. Our kids, of course, wanted nothing to do with Santa, but rather wanted to jump around in one of those big inflatable playhouses they have at local fairs. So, we did that instead. Hope's yard sale went well enough that she has enough money to buy a Christmas tree, so we'll get one of those artificial ones this weekend, and we'll have it for a week before we head up north. This is our last post until we see y'all, so stayed tuned until next year!!

Thursday, we celebrated Kenny's fifth birthday with Rick and Ann Pruden, who stopped in for a several day visit during a vacation along the southeastern coastline. It is hard to believe the little person hooked up to all that medical equipment right after he was born is now a vibrant 5-year-old, full of adventure and questions... Kenny got a bunch of presents, for which he was excited about (and very gracious to receive). We have another party scheduled for him later today for his little friends, so I can't stay too long--I have to get home and grill hotdogs! The picture to the right is Kenny at a few weeks old. We were having a going-away luncheon for Jackie and Ed Robinson. Jackie was my work unit's administrative assistant for years, and Hope and Jackie worked together for a while. Jackie took another position with the Forest Service in Jackson, Mississippi (she now works for the Forest Service in Russellville, Arkansas). "Big Ed" was a star football playe...