Bragg Family South

Doesn't Beth's face say it all? Little girls about to embark on a big adventure... Beth and her preschool class went to the local pumpkin patch for an exciting trip. They got to play on all sorts of things, took a hay ride, and picked out their own pumpkins: We were happy to see the nice weather for this day, because the trip had been postponed a week earlier due to rain. We also enjoyed beautiful weather this last weekend, which really helped make our camping much more enjoyable. We left Friday afternoon for Petit Jean State Park ( http://www.petitjeanstatepark.com/ ) in central Arkansas. We've done a blog posting on this park before--we visited it in August. The reason we were here was so that I could attend an archeology workshop (learning how to work in an indoor lab during a beautiful fall weekend). Fortunately, we did get to enjoy some of the outdoors, as you see with Kenny at this overlook: and here I am with the kids: Our goal for our first evening (Friday night) w...

Am I talking about the Packers, who spanked the Indianapolis Colts today? No--check out this video clip... He'd been getting closer and closer every day, and he finally made the first real effort this evening. We'll still have to convince him walking is more efficient than crawling, but watch out world!!

Here's a few more pictures from Rich and Ann's recent visit to us here in Monticello. The picture above shows Kenny and Ann enjoying a lighter moment at the church picnic (Kenny is wet because of a water balloon fight he had just participated in). Below, Beth was NOT pleased with how fast her Bumpa was running the boat on Lake Monticello... Today we celebrated Beth's 4 th birthday. Her actual birthday is Wednesday, October 22, but we're so busy that particular day (and the rest of the week), we figured it would be better to have her party and her little friends over this morning. The picture above shows Beau Kuttenkuler playing "pin the kiss on the frog" (her party had a princess theme...). They also spent time decorating cookie "wands" (above) and fighting a dragon by popping its bubbles with glow-stick "swords". Lil' Stephen was too small to participate in the games, but once he got used to strangers, he started have at least so...

October started for Bragg Family South with a weekend trip to Hot Springs. While I was giving a talk at the Arkansas Archeological Society's annual meeting, Hope took the kids up to a small festival near Little Rock. Above, Kenny fights gravity with an old-tyme game, and Beth rides a horse, one of her all-time favorite activities (below): My meeting went well, and the kids had a good time. I had another business trip to northwest Arkansas during the week, and I also went to that archeological site near Little Rock for another day's worth of digging. It was a beautiful fall day, and although I didn't find as much as I usually do (just a couple broken arrow points and some small sherds), it was nice to be there. I did get a good picture or two of a bee tree just to the side of where we are digging: Hope's parents had arrived the evening before (on Wednesday night). On Thursday, after I returned from digging, Rich, Kenny, Beth, and I went to a UAM football game. ...