Whew!! We just survived a very long week of travel, family get-togethers, and Packer football... The picture of Beth above is at my sister Laurie's (aka Lulu's) house in Cross Plains, Wisconsin (just outside of Madison). Our kids have always loved their adorable and well-trained Llewellin setters Mingo and Lily. They patiently let even little kids like Stephen pick at them:
And of course, they loved all the extra attention they got. Below is a picture of Mingo with Kenny:
Lulu and her husband Mark were very gracious and indulgent hosts, and bravely tolerated the disruption of their schedule and messes left by our little kids... Below, Lulu takes a short break to talk with my brother John (aka Jojo) while Beth begs for another book to be read to her:
As you can see, the kids of Bragg Family South weren't the only ones there. My sister Lisa brought her three children. In the picture below, Lisa holds her daughter Leila and my son Stephen while Beth and Lisa's daughter Emma read books at the end of the couch:
In this picture, Emma snuggles Stephen and Leila:
Lisa's oldest child, Michael, was very patient in helping his younger cousin Kenny by playing more games of Stratego and War than he probably desired:
The extended Bragg family (including all 6 of us, plus my Mom and Dad) and our spouses/significant others all congregated on Sunday, November 22 to celebrate an early Thanksgiving dinner (after, of course, watching the Packers beat the 49ers on TV). That evening, my brother Bob broke out his Playstation II and the game "Singing Star", which is a karaoke-like game in which two or more people try to out-sing each other.
Below, brother John's partner Jim Houzner figures out how to use the microphone before trying to sing:
and brother Bob's girlfriend Deb critiques her performance:
We had lots of nice visiting, in addition to the singing. Below, my dad and Mark Valasky's father Vann talk about dad's new GPS:
Stephen and his somewhat younger cousin Leila played together constantly (mostly on the steps to the second floor of Lulu's house), but also enjoyed some quite time together watching cartoons with Lily:
We left Lulu and Mark's home (somewhat worse for wear, sorry, Lulu and Mark!) and headed east on Monday for Hope's parents' house near Ann Arbor, Michigan. We spent the next couple days unwinding and touring some local attractions, including looking at this small dam near a cider mill north of their home:
Our big event was on Thanksgiving Day--a trip to Ford Field in Detroit to watch the Green Bay Packer and Detroit Lions play football! Below is a picture of us, right before we went to the game:
Hope's dad Rich ("Bumpa") Pruden played the token Lion's fan, with myself, Kenny, my brother John, and his partner Jim playing the Packer fans. My brother Bob was supposed to join us on this trip, but the threat of snow in the Madison area where he does snow removal during the winter led him to cancel out at the last minute. Thursday morning we headed into Detroit early, with the intention of stopping in Greektown and having a Greek brunch. We still had time to kill, so after selling Bob's unused ticket to a local scalper, we then boarded the elevated railway (the People Mover) that runs through downtown Detroit (here, Kenny awaits the imminent arrival of the train at the Greektown station):
Below, Kenny and Jim enjoy the ride around downtown Detroit, with part of the skyline in the background:
We were early enough that we overlapped with the Thanksgiving Day parade in downtown Detroit (that's Ford Field in the background opposite the church):
Ford Field is the recently built new football stadium, and home of the Detroit Lions:
Ford Field is a domed (indoor) stadium, which helped us avoid the cool temperatures and rain in the Detroit area that day. Below are the teams practicing before the start of the game:
Here are the Packers warming up:
We were a little far from the field to get good views of the action, so I didn't take many pictures of the actual game. We also happened to be on the wrong side of the field to see most of the half time show:
However, history will show that the Packers were triumphant, and a good time was had by all Packer fans. Below are pictures of the teams shaking hands at the end of the game:
The day after Thanksgiving, some of Hope's family from the Detroit area came out to Rich and Ann's home to help us celebrate Kenny's 8th birthday and Rich's ...um... somewhat higher birthday. Below is Hope's cousin Chris holding his daughter Alexandria with Beth and Stephen:
Now, for all of you who criticized my use of a cordless power drill to carve jack-o-lanterns, what about Rich's use of a blowtorch to light birthday candles?:
We had a nice visit, with cake and presents. The next day, Saturday, we drove all the way from Michigan to our home in Arkansas, arriving late in the evening. Oh, and before I forget, we did do something educational to make up for the couple of days of school Kenny missed--we went to the museum of natural sciences on the University of Michigan campus. Below, Stephen gets the traditional meeting of the dinosaur:
and here we are posing outside of the museum:
Today (Sunday) I went out to do a little deer hunting this afternoon. I saw a couple deer along the road as I drove out to my spot, and sent a deer unseen but snorting off into the woods, but did not get a shot at anything before a heavy late afternoon rain shower sent me home. I'll continue to deer hunt as I can between now and when we leave for Christmas. Hopefully by then, Hope and the kids will be over the colds they brought back from our most recent northern trip!
Whew!! We just survived a very long week of travel, family get-togethers, and Packer football... The picture of Beth above is at my sister Laurie's (aka Lulu's) house in Cross Plains, Wisconsin (just outside of Madison). Our kids have always loved their adorable and well-trained Llewellin setters Mingo and Lily. They patiently let even little kids like Stephen pick at them:
And of course, they loved all the extra attention they got. Below is a picture of Mingo with Kenny:
Lulu and her husband Mark were very gracious and indulgent hosts, and bravely tolerated the disruption of their schedule and messes left by our little kids... Below, Lulu takes a short break to talk with my brother John (aka Jojo) while Beth begs for another book to be read to her:
As you can see, the kids of Bragg Family South weren't the only ones there. My sister Lisa brought her three children. In the picture below, Lisa holds her daughter Leila and my son Stephen while Beth and Lisa's daughter Emma read books at the end of the couch:
In this picture, Emma snuggles Stephen and Leila:
Lisa's oldest child, Michael, was very patient in helping his younger cousin Kenny by playing more games of Stratego and War than he probably desired:
The extended Bragg family (including all 6 of us, plus my Mom and Dad) and our spouses/significant others all congregated on Sunday, November 22 to celebrate an early Thanksgiving dinner (after, of course, watching the Packers beat the 49ers on TV). That evening, my brother Bob broke out his Playstation II and the game "Singing Star", which is a karaoke-like game in which two or more people try to out-sing each other.
Below, brother John's partner Jim Houzner figures out how to use the microphone before trying to sing:
and brother Bob's girlfriend Deb critiques her performance:
We had lots of nice visiting, in addition to the singing. Below, my dad and Mark Valasky's father Vann talk about dad's new GPS:
Stephen and his somewhat younger cousin Leila played together constantly (mostly on the steps to the second floor of Lulu's house), but also enjoyed some quite time together watching cartoons with Lily:
We left Lulu and Mark's home (somewhat worse for wear, sorry, Lulu and Mark!) and headed east on Monday for Hope's parents' house near Ann Arbor, Michigan. We spent the next couple days unwinding and touring some local attractions, including looking at this small dam near a cider mill north of their home:
Our big event was on Thanksgiving Day--a trip to Ford Field in Detroit to watch the Green Bay Packer and Detroit Lions play football! Below is a picture of us, right before we went to the game:
Hope's dad Rich ("Bumpa") Pruden played the token Lion's fan, with myself, Kenny, my brother John, and his partner Jim playing the Packer fans. My brother Bob was supposed to join us on this trip, but the threat of snow in the Madison area where he does snow removal during the winter led him to cancel out at the last minute. Thursday morning we headed into Detroit early, with the intention of stopping in Greektown and having a Greek brunch. We still had time to kill, so after selling Bob's unused ticket to a local scalper, we then boarded the elevated railway (the People Mover) that runs through downtown Detroit (here, Kenny awaits the imminent arrival of the train at the Greektown station):
Below, Kenny and Jim enjoy the ride around downtown Detroit, with part of the skyline in the background:
We were early enough that we overlapped with the Thanksgiving Day parade in downtown Detroit (that's Ford Field in the background opposite the church):
Ford Field is the recently built new football stadium, and home of the Detroit Lions:
Ford Field is a domed (indoor) stadium, which helped us avoid the cool temperatures and rain in the Detroit area that day. Below are the teams practicing before the start of the game:
Here are the Packers warming up:
We were a little far from the field to get good views of the action, so I didn't take many pictures of the actual game. We also happened to be on the wrong side of the field to see most of the half time show:
However, history will show that the Packers were triumphant, and a good time was had by all Packer fans. Below are pictures of the teams shaking hands at the end of the game:
The day after Thanksgiving, some of Hope's family from the Detroit area came out to Rich and Ann's home to help us celebrate Kenny's 8th birthday and Rich's ...um... somewhat higher birthday. Below is Hope's cousin Chris holding his daughter Alexandria with Beth and Stephen:
Now, for all of you who criticized my use of a cordless power drill to carve jack-o-lanterns, what about Rich's use of a blowtorch to light birthday candles?:
We had a nice visit, with cake and presents. The next day, Saturday, we drove all the way from Michigan to our home in Arkansas, arriving late in the evening. Oh, and before I forget, we did do something educational to make up for the couple of days of school Kenny missed--we went to the museum of natural sciences on the University of Michigan campus. Below, Stephen gets the traditional meeting of the dinosaur:
and here we are posing outside of the museum:
Today (Sunday) I went out to do a little deer hunting this afternoon. I saw a couple deer along the road as I drove out to my spot, and sent a deer unseen but snorting off into the woods, but did not get a shot at anything before a heavy late afternoon rain shower sent me home. I'll continue to deer hunt as I can between now and when we leave for Christmas. Hopefully by then, Hope and the kids will be over the colds they brought back from our most recent northern trip!
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