Bragg Family South

Kenny looks wistfully northward as he drives us at dusk on the first day of this year's annual holiday pilgrimage north for Bragg Family South.  We had him take over to get more interstate driving experience for our novice driver--even though he's had his license for over a year now, he doesn't have a ton of experience behind the wheel. With a government shutdown looming, we headed north the Friday before Christmas, vowing to not let the impending furlough negatively impact our visits.  First up--Michigan.  Below is a picture of one of the many intense games of hearts played by Hope, her dad (back to camera), and Kenny (Stephen played only a game or two--you can see his enthusiasm!): Stephen was much more into climbing some of the spruce tree's in Rich Pruden's front yard...even getting his "Bumpa" to join him at one point: No worries, y'all--he wasn't but a few feet above the ground, and those spruce branches are quite strong!  T...

Well, I better get a fall-related blog post up, before it ceases to be fall!  Pictured above is Kenny and one of his fellow scouts learning about archeology and helping to sort some artifacts for the local archeological station.  This was one of many things Kenny was involved in this fall, including playing in the high school marching band, helping me fix the lawnmower (below): serving as a scale for one of my work-related photos--the logs pictured below were cut from a pine plantation on our deer hunting lease (look at those growth rings!): (he's done a little bit of deer hunting with me), and of course enjoying the festivities that accompany fall, such as carving pumpkins with the rest of the family: All of the kids have been busy; Stephen was on a soccer club that won their particular division: Stephen is sitting in the middle of the picture above; they played almost all their games after dark, and my cell phone camera would only produce pixelated b...

I see that it has been a couple months since my last blog, so I better get my act together, and get a few more pictures and stories out there...Beth is pictured above with one of the little girls we go to church with who just adores Beth (and vice versa).  We have stayed extra busy since the last blog post (when Beth, Stephen and I had gone out to Montana in July).  I just haven't been as diligent in reporting on our activities... Since Montana, we've: Kept the world at bay by playing some new board games (well, at least Hope and the kids have)... Kenny's gone on several Scout camping trips... Beth and the cats have taken MULTIPLE naps... We managed to catch a minor league baseball game in Little Rock... We took advantage of the long Labor Day holiday weekend to visit the Shiloh Civil War battlefield again... And on that same long weekend, when we weren't at our campsite we went to the Memphis (Tennessee) Zoo and the IKEA in that c...