Parkins Family Personal Web Pages

Family History in the Making. This is where family members can share photo albums and personal stories.

Larye and Judy's Personal Pages

A lot of our newer adventures and musings are now posted in our blogs, but references to separate pages are still found here.

We've put together a collection of pages we've shared with our friends and family over the past few years, and decided to put them where they can be found. So, here is our scrapbook, summer vacation slide show, and all those other things that people trot out for company when simple conversation fails. We still plan on putting some history and old photos in the geneology section of this web, but, as you can see, we're too busy fooling around with visiting relatives and building hideaways. Some of our earlier pages were converted from word processed material, so the photos are a bit big. Most of the pages have lots of photos. Listings are newest first.

• Events of 2012. In which we were pretty laid back, recovering from 2011. More remodeling. Beads, Bikes, quilts, and weaving.
• Events of 2011. "The Year of Traveling Wildly," in which we put 35,000 miles on our new car in search of a place to ride our new bicycle, and get defeated by the Florida Keys. We sell our house in Montana and upgrade "Chaos Central," in a chaotic way, naturally.
• Landscape Extreme Makeover: Before and after pictures of our landscaping project at Chaos Central, from July request for quote to completed project in December
• There and Back Again: The rest of our tour photos: Beechcraft Museum in Tennessee, the Alamo, family visits in Florida, New Mexico, and California. Scenery in Nebraska, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.
• Florida Keys Tour: A collection of photos we took on our Florida bicycle tour, which turned out to be mostly an auto tour (too hot). However, Larye did get in his "birthday ride," plus bonus miles, through the Okaloacoochee Slough and around the south shore of Lake Okeechobee, and we rode through the middle of "Occupy Miami" on our 150-mile ride to the Seven-Mile Bridge (which we didn't ride across).
• Events of 2010, in which we realize we are not retired after all, share our new home with the grandchildren for whom we moved to be closer (and their parents), make numerous upgrades and repairs to our unsold Montana home while continually lowering the price to chase the market, bicycle in Canada, visit relatives, and, individually, continue working and attend quilt retreats.
• Cabin Update, 2010. Yes, we still have our cabin. Friends noted we hadn't updated pictures in years on our public web, so here they are. Interior upgrades are gradual, but we did add a solar array this summer.
• Tour 2010, in which we venture 4300 miles to eastern Washingon, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona, returning to Washington via Montana; attend Handweavers Guild of America's Convergence 2010 in Albuquerque, and spend some time with the Parkins clan, now all reunited in Las Cruces.
• Events of 2009, in which we retire to western Washington State, with attendant misadventures along the way.
• Retirement, moving into a new old house.
• Unpacking in the new house.
• Coping with the 1920s. How to install a dishwasher when you have a 1920s kitchen--put it in the utility/pantry, of course
• Events of 2008, aka "Life in the 'Root," in which we visit New Mexico, get visitors from New Mexico, take a cruise with the Wisconsin grandkids, and get serious about weaving and spinning.
• Cruisin' 2008 - In which Matt and Patricia drag us off for an extended family vacation (extended family, not extended vacation) to the Caribbean, over Thanksgiving. Seven nights, seven islands, no turkeys.
• Birthday Ride 2008 - no photos, just cranking up and down the Bitterroot Valley, doin' the 65-mile Birthday Ride, first Sunday in October. Judy opted out of the main event, claiming excessive youth, so Larye rode the first 50 miles solo, then Judy joined him for the top of the figure '8' for the last 15 miles. Average speed dropped below 10mph due to leaky tire on the backside 25 miles of the 50 mile loop. Having changed ride plans at the last minute, he forgot to pack spare parts, so limped home, riding three or four miles between refills. The legs still work, but the brain is obviously gone.
• 2007 Report: Events of 2007 (PDF only).
• Flower Garden 2007: Views of our flowerbeds and ornamental fruit trees as the season progresses.
• 2006 Report: Events of 2006, such as they were...
• Tour 2006 : Our infrequent vacation holiday week takes us to the urban milieu of downtown Vancouver, BC, Canada in early November, with visits to relatives in Odessa and Carnation, Washington going out and coming back, and a storm-driven detour through Oregon on the way home.
• 2006 MS150 Bike Tour: Once again, we travel to La Conner, Washington to participate in the ride for Multiple Sclerosis, riding 150KM (94 miles) in two days.
• The Strube Family Reunion, held in Lakefield, Minnesota in July 2006 spurs interest in a family history website.
• Ashley Graduates from High School: Granddaughter Ashley graduated from Oregon High School in Wisconsin, June 11, 2006. Both of us attended: Judy drove out the week before and Larye followed by air for the weekend, after which Judy spent the rest of the week at the Minnesota Quilt Show in St. Cloud and Larye continued home by car, taking advantage of the "shortcut" across the Sapphire Mountains via Skalkaho Pass on MT 38, open only mid-June to early September.
• Ethan's 3rd Birthday: We made a quick weekend dash to Lakewood for the continuing festivities.
• Lost in Cyberspace, a short story about family communications on the Internet, that was published in the Ravalli Republic as part of the Bitterroot Writer's Workshop.
• Easter in Las Cruces: We drove to New Mexico in the spring of 2006. The children surprised us with a set of group photos, staged to complement the family portrait taken in 1978.
• Winter trips: We made our 2006 mid-winter trip to Lakewood over an extended weekend.
• 2005 Report: The events of 2005, in PDF format (Adobe Reader required).
• The plane: We convert the remaining corner of the garage into an airplane factory. Waiex kit #44 arrives in November, 2005. Larye has been a member of the Experimental Aircraft Association for 30 years, but hasn't flown for 38 years, due to lack of a flying machine. Finally, after drooling over build-your-own plans for a third of a century, he has a chance at the dream. It will be a few years before this one flies, but it is a start. The web page, a builder's log required for the FAA approval and licensing in the amateur-built experimental category, is updated as work progresses.
• Group Health Cooperative 2005 MS150 Bicycle Event: We ride in support of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, in Washington State. La Conner to Anacortes to Deception Pass State Park, return to La Conner (50 miles); La Conner to Bow-Edison and return, Skagit Valley loop, (50 miles)
• Remodel, part 2: The laundry, pantry, and mudroom areas get extensive reconfiguration.
• Remodel, part 1: We remodel the utility/bath area, starting with the bathroom.
• The Tale of the Corner Hutch: We sell the Parkins family home in Minnesota, and retrieve a few childhood momentos and furnishings--but not without incident.
• 2004 Events: in which nothing much happens, but a good year, nevertheless.
• 2004 Bike Tour: in which we ride part of the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes, our first Metric Century in 15 years (62 miles).
• 2003 Events: Our annual newsletter: Weight loss, travels, first odd-numbered year to not have a household move or job change in a long time.
• Raising Harvey:: a Weight Watchers success story, in which we lose the whole 190-pound, six-foot invisible rabbit.
• Early Winter: Halloween 2003 greets us with freezing weather and a little snow.
• A real vacation: a fall tour of the Wasatch, Great Salt Lake, and Idaho.
• Grandson Ethan at five months.
• Hiking 2003: A busy schedule and active fire season limits our trips to a short hike up nearby Blodgett Canyon.
• Grandson "CJ" at 18 months, or how Grandma and Grandpa survived a week of babysitting in Wisconsin.
• How we lost 100 pounds in 20 weeks: Getting fit with Weight Watchers.
• 2002 Events: Our annual newsletter: Judy opens quilting service in Hamilton.
• Hiking Season 2002 - Summer outings in the Bitterroot Mountains.
• Cabin Update 6/2002 - The sheetrock is in! How we solved hanging rock on a 6-over-12 cathedral ceiling 15 feet up--a saga two years in the making.
• Spring at last - The garden is in, May-June 2002.
• March 2002 - Thaw and Yet More Snow: Possible end of the drought in western Montana.
• New grandson: Matthew Christian Jenkins-Bock, February 17, 2002
• 2001 Events: Annual newsletter. Moving,job changes, weddings, family visits.
• October 2001 - Settling In: A 90-second house tour.
• September 2001 - Moving Again: In which we escape to the Bitterroot Valley.
• June 2001 Snowstorm in Montana: Unprecedented late spring valley snowfall damages shade trees in Missoula's historic districts.
• 2000 Events: Annual newsletter. Montana wildfires, pets, Year 2000 births in the family.
• Fall Tour 2000: Fort Peck Dam, Bemidji, Itasca, Little Falls, New Orleans and the Delta, EAA Museum, Wisconsin family, Mt. Rushmore, Devils Tower, and Custer Battlefield.
• The Cat Page: Yes, they have their own web page.
• New Mexico 2000: Family visits, plus Arizona snow tour.
• Cabin Followup, 2000: Outfitting the weekend hideaway. Interior photos (partly finished) and winter scenes.
• 1999 Events: Our annual newsletter. We move to Montana.
• Cabin Construction, 1999 Warning: really big photos. We build a "Y2K Bunker" in the Mission Mountains of Western Montana.

Links to other sites

• Information Engineering Services: Larye's home-based consulting business.
• Realizations: Judy's home-based fabric arts business.