Somersaulting Bronco! (And other stuff I needed to fit in.)

Gayle and I went to the Hyrum rodeo on June 27th. You'll read about it in some posts below, but I'm just getting the hang of formatting things so I've had to lump some stuff together here. At the rodeo I was testing out the video function on our digital camera and stopped recording this snippet before I realized that the horse had just flipped. You'll still see a bit of it in this short clip. More on the rodeo below --



The next day Craig and I performed at "Art on the Lawn," which is North Logan's mini- Summerfest (the real deal is in Logan). The outdoor sound system was not well balanced and it was not one of our steller gigs, but here's a clip for your entertainment. This is "Devoted to You," an old Everly Bros. song. We were still getting polished for our next gig, which was going to be at the tabernacle the next week.




Meanwhile, Gayle was also wandering around and looking at the art. People were allowed to participate and make their own crafts. Here's a pottery making shot -

The very next day it was Gayle's turn to provide the flower arrangement for Sacrament meeting (also our ward conference). After choir practice that morning she pedaled around the neighborhood looking for good flowers (she got permission before clipping!). From our yard and those of three neighbors, here is her finished product:

And here is the close-up: (by the way, Gayle says she counted ten different varieties of flower/plants in the arrangement - all for free)

You can read below about the rodeo. This is a snippet of the action.

Dime Store Cowboys! (Not real cowboys) . Who shot the sheriff? Gayle says it looks like I did. Actually, I got this hat 20 years ago for a Crocodile Dundee imitation outfit. This is in our front yard prior to our night at the Hyrum Rodeo.

Yes, last Friday night we hit the Hyrum, Utah rodeo. Ya-hoo! We even dressed up for it. I told Gayle that everybody dressed like this to go to rodeos. She didn't believe me. When we got there, she was right. There were only about six people in the stands wearing hats (and theirs looked like they belonged on the people). Every time we turned to talk to each other we hit brims. Gayle said she felt like we went to a costume party. The stands had wide spaces under the seats. About three kids fell through right near us in the space of about half an hour. None was hurt seriously! Gayle covered her eyes through several events. She doesn't like danger - and riding broncs and bulls is not riskless. Also, slinging down calves to tie their legs, or lassoing them around the neck when they're running, or wrestling them to the ground, broaches on animal abuse. But we had fun - especially since we were given free tickets.

I've always been into exercise, but recently Gayle is taking more opportunities to burn calories as well. Here we are stopping at a friend's house during a neighborhood bike ride.

We did a church youth conference workshop on music's influences. This is a combination of some of the props I had to use. My snake shirt represented evil. The cap and flag were props for the song Amazing Grace done with bagpipes for fallen heroes. The setting for this shot is actually part of our back hillside (and I personally hand laid ever stone on it).

Here's our entry for the cover of GQ. Jared as a groomsman recently.

This video cracks us up! It was very late and I wanted to test the video feature on our digital camera (yes, we are such Luddites that we had not even tried it before). Gayle was tired. I asked her to move around for the video. This was her response.

No - this is not an Oedipus complex situation! Jared was really a good sport posing for this. He was dressed in a tux for his friend's wedding reception (Ray Carter). Meanwhile, Gayle was trying on a prop she was going to use for a church youth conference music workshop we were about to do. We couldn't pass up the opportunity to take the picture.

We went up Logan canyon to the girl's camp (Camp Lomia) to do the workshop for about 60 youth. We wondered whether we ended up at the right place because the group arrived an hour late. One of the young women had gotten lost on their hike, so they were running behind.

Here are the two golfing buddies about to head out to the Preston Golf course the day before Father's Day 2008. This was Jared's gift to me. I've only golfed a couple of times in the last ten years, but we had fun! Maybe I'll have to take it up and go a bit more often.

Here's a shot of three generations - Spencer, Leonard Spencer, and Jared. This was taken Father's Day 2008.

Maiden Post by the actual namesakes of the Blog

Yes. It's true. Our beautiful, happily married daughter, Alicia, authored our blog's initial profile. So this is really the old folks' first blog entry, post, whatever it's called. As you can tell, we're old-school and are just easing into this. It's been quite hectic over the last month. Mom and I drove down to Azusa and visited with Adrian, Arleen, and Brittney. Then we drove over to Santa Clarita to visit Jesse and Alicia, and our good friends the Larges. We also attended church in the Saugus 3rd ward. A few days after we got back to Logan, Alicia and Jesse took their vacation and drove up here. But then while they were here, I had to fly to a tradeshow back down in San Diego for a few days. I got home to still enjoy their visit for awhile.

Sunday mom and I spoke about Fatherhood in our home ward, the Logan 8th. Grandpa and Grandma Parkinson (my parents) attended, as did Patricia (my youngest sibling) and her friend, David Monson, and Jared. Shortly after, we went up to eat and the grandparents' home.

This is probably enough for the inital blog. We'll hopefully get better and post more interesting (and humorous?) stuff in the future.

It's Official, We Have A Blog!!!

Here is the story of how the Parkinson family came to be....


Once upon a time, in a land far, far away (Georgia), a beautiful baby was born. Her name was Beverly Gayle Williams; we shall call her Bevy.

Just a few short years later, a handsome baby boy was born to Spencer and Joyce Parkinson. They named him Spencer. We shall call him Sparky.
While Sparky was attending Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, Tennessee, he met the beautiful Bevy and they decided to marry.


And with Adrian Seth Parkinson their family of three was complete. But wait, they're not yet done...


Next came along little baby Alicia. It took her awhile to learn the proper way to smile. Nonetheless, she was still adorable.


....And then there were 5! With the birth of cute wittle baby Jawed. I mean, Jared Williams Parkinson. Finally the Parkinson family is complete!


Here they are, the fantastic five!