Bragg Family South

This has got to be one of the hardest blog postings I've ever had to do...As some of you are aware, on November 12, we lost Ann Pruden suddenly.  She is pictured above with Kenny from a visit to the Monroe (Louisiana) Zoo in about 2008.  Ann was an infinitely kind and compassionate person who doted on her family, and she will be sorely missed!  The day after she passed away, we drove up to Michigan to be with Rick and the rest of the family and friends.  On Sunday, we had a memorial open house at the Pruden family home in Whitmore Lake.  As the picture shows below, the day was warm and sunny, just like Ann: My brother Bob (pictured with Stephen below) also joined us: Bob had gotten to know Rick and Ann pretty well through a number of visits he'd made to the area over the years, plus the holiday visits Rick and Ann often made with the Bragg Family in Wisconsin.  The house was a hub of activity most of the day, with many different family members ...

Above, Kenny plays with the rest of the 8th grade "marching" band for one of the local football games. I put "marching" in quotes because, well, they really don't do any marching yet...at least not while they're playing.  They go out onto the field in formation, play a couple songs at half time, and then return to their bleachers to periodically play during the game.  Good practice for the future, though!  Below, Stephen and his best buddy Logan McAlpine also enjoyed this game: Beth turned 11 a couple weeks ago, and had several friends over for a "Dr. Who"-themed birthday party.  For those of y'all who don't know, Dr. Who is a British sci-fi series that has been on for what seems to be an eternity (since the mid-1960s, actually), and that Hope and the kids love (and I pretty much can't stand).  But I indulge my family...  Below, Beth and her friends (and Stephen) enjoyed a dinner based on food references from this show: ...

Well, we're not quite to her birthday, but in just a few days Beth will turn 11, so I figured I'd give y'all a "throw-back" picture of her birthday in 2007...You can see how 3-year-old Beth was giddy about her birthday cake! Yesterday, we participated in a really neat event--a "ghost walk" through history at Arkansas Post National Memorial.  We have taken many of you here when you visit us...Arkansas Post is about an hour from our home, and is the site of the first European settlement in Arkansas (an early version dated back to the late 1600s).  Most of you may be familiar with this location for other reasons--we usually take a spring picnic trip here, and this is where we photograph the alligators! To our pleasant surprise, the slough where we usually see the gators was chock-full of flowers...I'm not sure what species these are, but the yellow ones were everywhere, and there were also some very pretty purple ones, too!  In the picture ...

My recent spate of old family photograph scanning led me to the following tribute, penned by my father, Don L. Bragg, to his father-in-law, Elton Bayer, after his passing in 1982: GRANDFATHER ELTON BAYER He was... ...unpretentious, ...a hard worker, ...grateful for the smallest favor, ...faithful to his wife, Betty, who preceded him in death--by one year and one week. ...supportive of his family, ...defender of his children, ...loved his grandchildren dearly. ...counseled his children and their spouses when the need seemed apparent, ...yet was indulgent out of regard for their maturing years. ...loved to win games of horseshoes and cribbage with his family--and win he usually did. ...was generous with the little he had of this world's goods. ...he appreciated that the Lord's blessings be asked at his table. No labor was too mean for him to do his utmost to bring food to his table, to provide clothing for his family, and to keep warmth under his roof. No ...

One last August picture before I jump into one of my favorites months, September...The Bragg Family South brood ready for their first day of school.  Yes, Kenny really is that tall now! I've always loved September...  Besides being my birth month, and the excitement of a new school year, I love the change of seasons, the bright fall colors, the cooler weather and crisp smells, and, of course, the start of football!  Below is a picture of one of our favorite pregame activities--tailgating before Weevil home football games: UAM has not fielded many successful football teams in the years we've been in Monticello, but we do enjoy the atmosphere of football in the South.  Below, Kenny awaits the action of a recent UAM home football game: We've done some local travel this month, including a trip to nearby El Dorado, Arkansas, located a little more than an hour to the southwest of Monticello.  El Dorado is a bigger town (approximately 20,000 people) and ...

After a couple of enjoyable days in the Williamsburg, Virginia, area, we pulled out and headed to the North Carolina coast.  Our next destination was the Wright Brothers National Memorial on Nags Head of the Outer Banks.  We arrived a little early, so while we waited to get into the park, we found a nearby beach that we strolled on for a little while (pictured above).  Our intent had been to spend a fair amount of time this day on the beaches; regrettably, that did not happen to the extent we intended (more on that later).  At Wright Brothers National Memorial, we got to learn about the early efforts in flight by the brothers, including seeing a replica of their plane: We also saw Kill Devil Hill, from which they launched some of their experiments from: While Hope took Beth and Stephen to an interpreter's program, Kenny and I hiked to the based of the monument pictured above.  Below, you can see how large this monument was: After our visit to t...