June and July activities

Look at what Stephen found! Not a dinosaur tooth...something even older--a quartz crystal with three points!  More on this discovery later...

Hard to believe it's been almost a couple months since my last blog post.  Lots has happened...and less than usual, thanks to these unusual days...  Hope and I have been consumed with work, as has Kenny, who is working nearly full-time at the city swimming pool (as a lifeguard).  Beth and I made a quick trip to visit my folks, who enjoyed a visit from 2/5 of Bragg Family South:

We had some gorgeous weather, and got to see several of my siblings, including my youngest brother Bill, pictured below enjoying a campfire with mom and Beth:

We spent time cooking out, and working on the house and trails on our property:

We took Mom on a day trip out of the house to visit Bond Falls:

We also took mom and dad to one of their favorite places in the world, the National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help (https://championshrine.org/) near Champion, Wisconsin:  

I had a few opportunities to enjoy walking around the old home site (such as down by Shepard Lake Creek, pictured below), with gorgeous weather...although the bugs got to be pretty bad out in the woods:

We had a nice visit with my sister Laurie and her husband Mark, although we couldn't stay long because we had to hit the road.  Beth took great pleasure at being noticeably taller than my youngest sister--who, by the way, is infamous for closing her eyes during photographs!

Another big event on July 9 was Kenny's delayed high school graduation, which was held with his entire class on the high school football field.  As you can see, everyone was socially distanced and masked during this program, which was also shortened in the pomp and circumstance.  Kind of a strange event, but one I'm sure Kenny will look back on with appreciation!

This last weekend, we indulged another of Kenny's requests...Before he heads off to college, he wanted to go on one last crystal mining adventure in the Ouachita Mountains of west-central Arkansas.  We chose a mine (Twin Creek Crystal Mine near Mt. Ida) we had visited some years ago:

We like the mines that let you get in their old excavating areas--you can see the rock wall beyond us in the picture below:

And we then poke through the spoils, looking for crystals missed by the original mining operation or other diggers:

You can't really see it in this picture, but the beaming Stephen found his big crystal as we were just about leaving...it definitely was our best find of the day!  The weather was good--not too hot because of how early we left--and the rain that had threatened held off.

By the time we finished at the mine in the late morning, it had warmed up enough to enjoy another local treat--Collier Springs!  This small spring flows out of a hillside into a small creek, and this cool little valley with fresh flowing water has long attracted visitors:

Stephen in particular liked sticking his head in the cool water:

Hope everyone is doing well at your end!