Bragg Family South

The problem with photography of the spectacular places of this world is it can never truly do the spectacles justice...even the panoramic picture above of a highway in the red rock deserts of northern Arizona absolutely pales in comparison to the scenes my eyes actually witnessed... Photographs never really capture the depth and range of the colors your eyes see, such as the red rocks and blue skies in the picture above, or the size of the bluffs in the background of the picture below: For example, the picture below is of the Colorado River flowing through one of its many canyons as it ambles across northern Arizona (taken from the Navajo Bridge, which is the one Hope and the kids are pictured on above).  The amazing green color of the river here is only poorly represented in this image, as is the depth to this river--it is 467 feet from the bridge's deck to the water below!! And the spectacular monsoonal thunderstorms that arise in this region just about every af...

The huge smile on this lil' boy's face is because he is about to take his first plane ride ever!  Most of y'all probably know that we just returned from a week-long business/personal trip out west, and part of the mission was to give Stephen his first taste of flying...and one that Kenny would remember--Beth flew a couple years ago for her first time, so she kept telling her brothers of her "veteran" nature regarding flying... We drove to Dallas and then flew into Las Vegas, arriving late last Saturday night.  The next morning we went to Mass at Holy Family Catholic Church, where Hope's cousin Father Steve Hoffer is the pastor.  After a nice visit with Father Steve, we struck out on our first adventure of this trip--a day visit to Death Valley National Park!  Our first stop in the area was a ghost town just on the outskirts of Death Valley called "Rhyolite": The shell of the building pictured above was b...

After my quick trip to Wisconsin for a funeral and the summer dig the next week in western Arkansas, my summer actually got even busier...  First came a week-long trip to Washington, D.C. as a part of my leadership training I am receiving in the Forest Service.  Not surprisingly, then, I had a chance to get around the US Capitol (above) and other parts of the National Mall, including the Lincoln Monument: the new monument to Korean War veterans: the Washington Monument and Reflecting Pool: the chambers of the US Supreme Court: among many other sites.  Most of the time I spent in DC was focused on learning how my agency operates at the national level, and how it interacts with the administration and Congress.  After quite an adventure getting back home to Arkansas following flight delays, Bragg Family South immediately piled into the minivan and headed out to a couple weeks of R&R (at least for some of us) in Wisconsin and Michigan.  I ...