Bragg Family South

We arrived safely in Monticello yesterday evening after another long trip home. As usual, the kids were real troopers, putting up with seemingly endless miles of highway and often grumpy parents. During our last few days in Rhinelander , we had much better weather, and we tried to take advantage of the sun and somewhat warmer temperatures. Here is a picture of Kenny and Beth playing miniature golf on that course just north of town on Highway 17: Hope had a little less luck, as can be seen with her ball retrieval style: and I was a good sport, as always: My brother Bob came back up after working a couple days in Madison, and we spent some time working on my 1968 Dodge Charger, as well as going on a canoe trip on Thursday. We canoed down the beautiful Tomahawk River about 20 miles west of Rhinelander . Here's Bob surveying a rapid that we portaged around: and here's a scenic view of the river: The stretch of the Tomahawk River we canoed is nice, if somewhat shallow and rocky. Wha...

Kenny and Beth enjoy the rain... but they really enjoy a sunny beach! While waiting for the weekend, we had a nice picnic lunch at Buck Lake, a county park just south of Rhinelander . The afternoon was not hot (mid-70s) and somewhat breezy, but after a week of cool, rainy weather, this was quite a break... Stephen had a lot of fun kicking his feet in the sand--a new sensation for him, I suppose. My brother Bob arrived early, and the kids and I had fun chasing baseballs... With it being just Stephen and I right now, it seems hard to believe that this house was so action-filled this weekend. Sunday, in addition to being Father's Day, was Mom and Dad's 40 th wedding anniversary. To celebrate, all 6 kids, spouses, grandchildren, and significant others gathered over the weekend here in Rhinelander . The following picture is from lunch on Saturday, which was chaotic (even missing a few people): Yes, even Michael ( Hurlburt , my sister Lisa's son) got into the action... We ha...

I am writing this on Dad's new computer here in Rhinelander. His old one, purchased for him as a gift quite a few years ago, was just not up to the tasks he needed. It was so bogged down that it was virtually unusable. We've replaced it with a much faster and more powerful system, and we're now trying to get it fully functional (moving his old files to it, installing the software he needs, etc.). Anyhow, this is one of many highlights so far on our trip to Wisconsin. Since we were planning on first visiting my sister Lisa in western Wisconsin, we figured we'd take a more westerly route. So, we headed north through central Arkansas first, and then drove to Kansas City, Missouri to pick up I-35, which we followed into Iowa. We then angled across Iowa, passing through some flooded areas and a lot of wet cornfields. In extreme northeastern Iowa (just across the Mississippi River from Prairie du Chien), we made a brief stop on our second day of travel at Effigy Mounds Nation...

Believe it or not, Beth was a little camera shy before we convinced her to show off her new video game toy (which will hopefully help keep her entertained on the drive up north). Tonight was Kenny's last t-ball game for the season, and for his "career"--after this point, kids his age play baseball with a pitching machine before they move onto kids pitching the ball to them. Kenny seems to have had a lot of fun this season, and he played better as the year went on (as did most of his teammates). If Kenny wants to play ball next season, he'll have to try out and earn a spot on a team. I think he's got a reasonable shot at making it--he can field and throw as well as the other kids his age, his batting is getting better (he even does okay hitting a thrown ball), and I think he's figured out what the game is about. He'll need to practice more and focus more, but I think he'll do that okay, too. But that's enough about that...Kenny's lovin ' the...