Bragg Family South

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...

  A little later this week (and plus 20 years), a couple crazy kids had "taken the plunge" and were joined in holy matrimony.  To celebrate our anniversary (20th...really?), we arranged for Hope's dad to pay us a quick visit to watch the kids, and we took a couple days to ourselves in Little Rock.  We stayed at "The Empress", an impressive 1880s vintage home turned into a bed and breakfast not too far from downtown Little Rock: Our room ended up being in the round cupola part of the house above the main entrance.  It was an enchanting place to spend a couple days, full of history and antiques.  We spent the weekend visiting antique shops and other "boring" things the kids grouse about... Over the last few weeks, we've kept busy taking the kids around to their events...especially Kenny's marching band.  Below are a couple of pictures of Kenny and his fellow bandmates practicing their marching prior to the first game of the season: ...

The threatening clouds above and below tell the tale of the Summer of 2016 here in south Arkansas--it's been a soggy one!  Not as bad as that experienced by our friends in southern Louisiana, but we've been getting steady, heavy rains pretty much all summer, resulting in wet ground, high rivers, and a lawn that needs weekly (or less) mowing every week this summer! The wet weather has helped us get ahead on a few projects by forcing us to stay inside somewhat more than usual...In addition to finally getting new carpet in our living room, I've spent some time this summer turning some of these antique wardrobes into bookshelves: We decided to modify these antiques, which can usually be found inexpensively, into nice looking, solid shelves: We also found some time to get out of Monticello, including one day for which we planned to go to a water park in Hot Springs...but with an impending storm system, decided to play miniature golf instead: On a different...