Midwinter adventures


Well, y'all know my tradition--I love to post some of the first flowers of spring for my northern friends and family, who are almost always still languishing in snow and ice...How about some nicely flowering daffodils for you, Brother John, as you shuffle through the most recent foot of snow?

We have been busy since returning from Christmas.  I have been hard at work (look, a picture below to prove it!):


And the kids and Hope are as busy as every...Below is a sight every Cub Scout parent recognizes--the Pinewood Derby!!


Actually, this was the first one in a number of years Hope has missed--she had had her neck surgery just a few days before, and wasn't up to the challenge.  Her Cub Scouts and fellow leaders got together for this charming shot, which was immediately posted to Facebook:


Hope was keeping up with her friends' Facebook posts regarding the derby, so this immediately brought tears of pride to her eyes...  Kenny's car did the best it had ever done--he won his age class, and took third overall:


They even had a special race for siblings of Scouts, and Beth won using one of her cars from an earlier Powder Puff derby:


Kenny, being uber-competitive, was a little disappointed that he didn't win the overall race, but as you can see from the picture below, he still did VERY well:


Super Bowl weekend we traveled up to Little Rock to do some shopping and attend a friend's birthday party.  Between those events, we had some time on our hands, so we went to Pinnacle Mountain State Park, just minutes west of Little Rock.  Below, Stephen poses for a picture:


Here Bragg Family South poses in front of the namesake peak, Pinnacle Mountain:


It was a really nice, sunny day, so we took a stroll on one of the trails, and Beth wanted to ride this curiously shaped tree like a horse (I think she's riding it backwards, though!):


This weirdly shaped tree is called an "Indian trail tree" or "trail marker tree" because some people think it was bent that way to mark the direction of a trail, or point out some other kind of landmark...While this may have conceivably been done at some point in time, virtually every tree you'll ever see bent in one of these weird forms has gotten this way through NATURAL CAUSES!!  Hope only walked part of the way, as the rough trail was hard on her still healing neck.  Kenny, Stephen, and I continued for a little farther, with the boys playing on some of the uniquely weathered rocks along the trail:



Just minutes after these pictures were taken, Stephen stumbled on a rock and took a face-first digger into the rocky trail, giving himself a few bruises and minor cuts, and promptly ending our hike!  This weekend, we hung around the house.  I worked on a variety of projects, while Kenny did an experiment for his science fair project:


He was studying the rate of food dye falling to the bottom of cups of water of different temperatures.  Beth and Stephen helped their mother put together a number of chocolate desserts that are sold as a fundraiser for the Monticello Public Library every year at Valentine's Day:


I think Stephen ate more pretzels than he made chocolates, but that was okay--she had a bunch of friends come over and help today (Sunday) putting other chocolates together:

The reason this fridge looks so bare is that we actually just bought a new one this weekend, and will take our old one to the office I work in later this week so we can have more space to store our lunches at work.  Happy Valentines Day!!

Comments

Lisa said…
You and those darn daffodils-!

Nice work at the Pinewood Derby! Looks like Hope's boys missed and appreciate her.
7:24 AM
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