Bragg Family South

Stephen gives an enthusiastic "Howdy, y'all!!" from one of big brother Kenny's baseball games... We've spent a lot of time recently getting the kids to their events, whether Kenny's baseball or Beth's dance class (she's posing in the picture below for her upcoming recital): As cute as these pictures are, we've actually become a little jaded towards these activities due to the commercial nature of them--buy this, buy that, pay for this, pay for that... At some point, we'll draw the line and won't cross it (especially if the kids aren't having that much fun). Speaking of fun, just this week we picked up a cypress picnic table we had purchased from a local craftsman. This hand-made table is completely built out of cypress, a very durable and pretty wood. The bright honey colored wood will gradually turn a beautiful silvery-gray, and we look forward to years of enjoyment. Above is a close-up of the beautiful grain pattern of this wood. ...

Egad! Severe weather again?!?!?!? Before I get into that, I want to assure y'all that there really is more to life down here than ducking storms... Like the picture above, of Kenny and Beth and their lil ' bud Beau Kuttenkuler enjoying a sunny spring day at the park... ...or how about Stephen enjoying one of several Easter egg hunts he got to participate in, or perhaps Kenny striking a pose before a Little League tournament: Beth also enjoyed a lovely spring day at a park in Warren: and of course the kids loved coloring Easter eggs... ...here's Beth about to get into the treats at an Easter party. Look, here's me even walking Stephen along a pretty trail in the Ouachita Mountains (we did discover Stephen gets car sick the hard way on this trip, though...): But the big excitement still lies in the storms we've been dealing with. Take last Thursday, for example. I had a talk to give in Fayetteville , Arkansas (that's all the way across the state, in the nor...

Nothing like a happy lil ' boy to cheer an otherwise troublesome week... More on that later! These pictures are from last week, when Kenny was on spring break. We didn't go anywhere, really, just to southwestern Arkansas. The kids got to play at a new state park for them: (They're digging holes in the gravel and exposing the high water due to recent rains). While they were doing this, I volunteered at a different archeological dig--this one being done at an 1840s-era house in Old Washington State Park in southwestern Arkansas (http://www.historicwashingtonstatepark.com/). Old Washington was an early settlement along a trail into Texas, and during the Civil War served for a time as Arkansas' capital after those Yankees captured Little Rock. The house we were excavating by: (That's me standing to the left of the pit) is called the Royston House (after its original owner), and was occupied from the 1840s until well after the Civil War. We're examining a t...