Bambi & Magpies, Dad's Birthday, Youth Conference

A couple of weeks ago Jared was about to leave our house when he noticed that a fawn was standing next to our mailbox and was letting magpies sit on its back to pick off bugs (we presume).

Bambi and some friends. This guy also munched off the top leaves of numerous of our plants and flower blooms. This is right next to our driveway.

A group of us got together for great grandpa's 84th birthday celebration. Here's an end view of the group at Sizzler.

Avril joined with the big folks.

Left - the new Spencer Parkinson in town. We now have three just in our family in Cache Valley. There's another one in Smithfield (or has been anyway). Jared and Patricia are glad to be there too.

Kelly is looking trim and fit from all his competitions, and Tracine is waving for the camera. Meanwhile dad is opening a card.

We held our ward Youth Conference over this past weekend (July 30 - August 1). Our first event was hiking up the Wellsville Mountains. We scaled the northernmost end from just above Mendon. Here is a shot looking southward at the higher parts of the Wellsvilles.

Gayle and I with a view to the southwest behind us, looking toward the bird refuge, Willard Bay, and ultimately the Great Salt Lake. Gayle persevered in spite of trying to recover from bronchitis. And I'm sporting a bandanna because on the ascent I ducked under a fallen tree trunk and came up too soon on the other side, not noticing a second branch with a broken piece sticking down. I put a gash in my scalp which bishop (Dr.) Firth pulled together by twisting hair strands on either side and tying the two strands together tightly. Later that night we went to his clinic. He told me I'd feel something cool and then a prick with the needle that would numb my skull. I quipped I guess that meant he would be working on a "numskull." That might sound funny, but it was actually him who had me in stitches (5 to be exact)! By the way, after a very long descent (for some of us) in the dark, we had great foil dinners in the Olsens' backyard (quite late).

Janet Garn celebrating her ascent as Bart Griffiths watches on. Behind Janet is a view northward toward Clarkston and then Idaho.

Bishop Mark Firth sharing words of inspiration and instruction to the youth. Behind him the Bear River meanders en route to the Great Salt Lake. Right below us is somewhere between Tremonton and Brigham City, and there is a small hot springs resort there. A bit later Nate Christensen, our high counsel representative, gave an edifying message.

One of our exercises included separating individually for time to pray, ponder, and record in a booklet some of the many ways we know that God lives and loves us personally. I ended up going above the group to another rocky outcropping and took this shot looking down. Note the narrowness of the ridge.

Here are those that made the hike event (minus yours truly). This is looking south.

Another event was our cooking competition. The group divided into 4 teams, each assigned a meat (beef, chicken, fish, and pork). We had a modest budget and one afternoon to shop and prepare our entree. We had a panel of "impartial" judges who scored each team on things like presentation, teamwork, staying within budget, creativity and, of course, flavor. I was on the pork team and we won! (I personally favored the fish team's effort.)

Some of the crowd at the cook-off held at the Firth home and yard.

Here's a shot of the beef group's presentation to the judges. The rice, by the way, even had coconut milk in it.

Our distinguished panel! (Brother and sister Poppleton, Hillary and Iva Lou Groutage)