Bragg Family South

So why the hornet's nest from Michigan?  Bragg Family South made an unexpected trip to southern Michigan in November to attend the funeral of Hope's grandmother Kay Pruden, who passed away at age 94 the week before Thanksgiving.  While there, we had a chance to visit a few places, including Eastern Market in downtown Detroit: Belle Island, just upriver from the Detroit skyline: Below, Stephen and Rick Pruden, the "third child club", enjoyed some quiet time together: The extended Pruden family and friends gathered at a local Italian restaurant following Kay's funeral service (Kay's husband, Don, is in the wheelchair): On our return trip, we made a brief detour to check out a natural area along our route called Hemlock Cliffs Natural Area on the Hoosier National Forest in southern Indiana.  This steep box canyon carved into the sedimentary rocks of this part of Indiana contains isolated populations of eastern hemlock, a tree more common...

First, I'd like to wish my girl a happy birthday!  Beth is turning into quite the young lady...  The end of October kept Bragg Family South plenty busy...in addition to Beth's birthday, we also had an award ceremony for Stephen and his all A's: (He insisted on wearing his suit for this ceremony). We also enjoyed another brief visit from Rick Pruden, who came down right before Halloween to taken in one of Kenny's marching band performances during a Monticello Billies football game: We also took advantage of some gorgeous weather to make a visit to southern Louisiana.  It had been some time since we had gone this way, so we opted to make a stop to pick satsuma oranges: Satsumas are small, not impressive looking oranges, yet are remarkable sweet and juicy, as all good oranges should be...They are definitely a Bragg Family South favorite! Of course, this was in a pretty rural part of the state, with some interesting highway signs: It was primaril...

Until we moved to the South, we had thought little of parades...they just weren't that common/frequent where we grew up.  In Monticello, Arkansas, at least, parades are a big thing--they have multiples each year, and now that we have three kids old enough to be pretty active, we get to more than our fair share...  The picture above and the two below show Kenny's new role in parades as an active participant--the Monticello High School marching band is in most of these parades, so Kenny and his bass clarinet will be getting their time in! Of course, the other kids have their roles, too--the Monticello Cub Scouts have a tradition (started a few years ago by Hope) of walking near the end of the parade advertising both scouting and the "leave no trace" philosophy of outdoor activity... ...which means they pick up trash along the route!  The picture of Stephen below shows him with his litter bag: Fortunately, the Cub Scouts aren't the last o...