Fall is for parades

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 ones in the parade--traditionally, that has gone to the horse riders, for obvious reasons!  Beth's role in this year's parade was more subdued--she volunteered to push the stroller of a toddler so her mother (and friend of ours) could walk with the Cub Scouts (her boys are in scouting, too):

I walked the parade route as well with the scouts to help ensure they weren't trampled by the horses following close on their heels.  The University of Arkansas Monticello band and football team also have a "walk of champions" between the dorms and the football stadium on game day, so here is a picture of Bragg Family South cheering on the Weevils this fall:

 And now we're involved in other local communities as well, so we McGehee (the town Hope works in) had their "Owl Fest" parade, we helped in that one, too...  In the two pictures below, the Desha County 4-H kids piled into the back of my pickup (which I drove) with Hope...yes, that's her in the 4-H clover costume...and we participated in that parade:

 

Stephen also helped out by throwing candy to kids from the truck's window (Kenny and Beth opted to stay home).

This past month has been more than just parades...We also had a send-off for UAM archeology station assistant Katy Gregory, who has moved up to a station assistant position near Little Rock:

The cake reads "Good Luck Cannon Ball Katy", a nickname she earned earlier this year after excitedly proclaiming her joy about uncovering a cannonball on one of those metal detector site surveys that were being done at the Elkins Ferry Battlefield.  Beth and Stephen and I also spent some quality time making a version of S'Mores while Hope was out of town on a business trip:

I believe Kenny missed out on that evening because he was out camping with his Boy Scout troop.  The weather is finally cooling down and drying out here, so it is starting to feel more like fall.  In a few weeks, the deer season will start up, and it will then REALLY feel like fall!