Bragg Family South

It's been a couple months since Bragg Family South's last posting, and a lot has happened since then...  First, Hope inherited the gavel that comes along with being elected the President of the Arkansas Archeological Society.  Her term for the state-level organization actually begins January 1, 2018, but she earned this honor at the state meeting at the end of September.  Hope has also been very busy doing her 4-H thing (as seen at Owl Fest in McGehee, AR, pictured below): And what would fall be without some dress-up?  Below, Hope, Beth, and Beth's friend Logan got dressed up in Harry Potter-related outfits before attending a concert in Little Rock based on the music of that book/movie series: Beth, being a HUGE Harry Potter fan (as is her mother), got to go to this show as part of her birthday gift.  Our lil' girl is now a teenager, and as you can tell is more excited about her birthday cake and ice cream than her older brother: Speaking of ol...

This smiling young ex-pat Cheesehead is my brother John, standing outside of his apartment building in Jersey City, NJ.  This picture was taken a couple weeks ago when I had the chance to visit him and his husband Jim prior to a business trip I was making in the area.  I flew into the Newark airport, and John picked me up there for a couple day visit. This visit allowed for a brief sampling of the attractions of the big city--we focused mostly on food and architecture.  Below was my breakfast the first morning in Jersey City--bagels!  More specifically, bagels and lox (a brined salmon, with cream cheese, tomatoes, and capers): After our bagel breakfast, the three of us walked a few blocks to a ferry that took us into downtown New York City (NYC): (Yes, in case you didn't know, Jim is also a displaced Cheesehead, representing Wisconsin in the NYC!).  The tall building in the background of the picture above is the Freedom Tower, built after the T...

Stephen's smirk above reminds me that it has now been almost two months since my last blog post, and I'm falling behind!  My excuse has been that work-related travel and other year-end duties have kept me from keeping up...not a good excuse, for sure!  I'll actually have another post to add shortly (probably after my next stint of work-related travel) to catch y'all up on some of those adventures... Late summer means we start a bit of a birthday binge, with Stephen's coming first.  He turned 10 this year, and had a party and sleep-over with a number of his friends that weekend: Late summer also means the kids went back to school (about mid-August, down here).  Beth is now in her second year of band, and that means she's joined the marching band.  Below, Beth is pictured in the band area of the stands, getting ready to play during the football game: Her 7th grade band plays for the 9th grade football team, and so they really don't do mu...

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...