Fall 2022 fun!


Wow!  Hard to believe how fast fall of 2022 has gone by!  Seems like we only just started the summer, and then school was upon us...and now the Thanksgiving holiday week has come and gone and December's knocking on the door!  As always, a lot has happened this fall, much of which revolved around band for Stephen (marching band during the football season), as well as some marching in local parades:


Stephen was also involved in a number of archeology-related activities, including practicing with his friends using an atlatl (spear thrower):


This practice was a prelude to a competition he and his friends participated in...which I'll get to later.  Stephen and I also took advantage of having the Columbus Day federal holiday off to climb to the top of a peak called Pinnacle Mountain just outside of Little Rock:


A tiring hike, for sure, but a spectacular view!  (And some pretty cool looking shortleaf pine, like the one growing out of the rocks by Stephen).  Stephen and I took two of his friends, Zeke and Eli, to Petit Jean Mountain on a later weekend to participate as a team in the "Archeolympics", which is a competition based on archeology...  This is where we competed in activities like throwing spears with an atlatl for distance and accuracy:


and a trivia-based game:


We did really well as a team competing against college anthropology/archeology students and some adults as well (and some 4-H teams), so it was a really fun day!

But fall of 2022 wasn't just about Stephen's activities...Beth had her fair share, too...Such as when our little princess turned 18!


In addition to getting to enjoy a birthday cake with fancy decorations prepared by your mother, Beth also got to enjoy one of the privileges of being an adult--she got to vote in her first election!


Hard to believe our little girl is now a voter!  We also spent time carving pumpkins:


and Hope and Beth (and Stephen) dressed up for Halloween:


The gorgeous weather we had that day meant LOTS of trick-or-treaters!  Beth also gave us a treat by earning an award from the high school for her help with some special needs students:


(That's a gift card she also earned from a local restaurant for her good deed!).  We also got treats from our visit up to Wisconsin that we just returned from...We visited my folks for Thanksgiving, which provided us about a week of fun, including a good visit with Kenny, who came down from Houghton to join us:


My sister Laurie--hamming it up in the picture below--and her husband Mark and dog came up from the Madison area for a couple days to join us for a couple days:


They had to return to the Madison area on Friday morning to get ready for work that evening, but we were able to rejoin them Saturday night for another excellent dinner at their restaurant call "Bistro 101" in beautiful downtown Mt. Horeb...Mark is the chef at this restaurant, and Laurie is the hostess and a server:


If you ever have the chance, take an advantage to enjoy the fantastic food and atmosphere of the Bistro!

Now, back to the busy holiday season for Bragg Family South!


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