Vacations

Today Robin and I are both home in Friendswood. It seems like a long time since we attended church together in our own ward. I have been gone the whole month of August and Robin a couple of weeks longer than that. Last fast Sunday I attended church with Grandma Irvine. We have had a great summer! We spent the week of July 4 in Longview Wa. visiting with Grandma Brinkerhoff, Gassers, The Scott Irvine family was there and the biggest surpirse was the McMurrys driving up unexpectedly. It was great to have the whole family together if only for a couple of days. We drove to the beach and had a great time together. I returned home for three days and then flew to Salt Lake City. I worked in Provo/Orem for a couple of weeks then Robin flew to Utah and we were able to spend a little more time with Ben & Alison. Our trip overlapped the Gassers trip a few days and it was good to see them again briefly. It was hard to contain our emotions as we watched them drive away. Last Sunday evening Ben and I drove to Cove and stayed with Mark and Maryann until thursday when we returned to Provo. We spent two days riding horses in various parts of the Cache national forrest thanks to Mark and his ramuda. We had a blast. Ben and I did not look much like cowboys but Mark and John were good sports and let us ride anyway. When I got off the airplane in Houston and the hot humid air hit me I was thinking about the cool Wasatch mountain evenings. We managed to schedule an evening to visit with Ashley and Cameron and see the house before we left. Robin and I spent the day Friday with Grandma Irvine and went up to the 26th floor of the church ofice building. I have never done that before. We also took in the art exhibit at the conference center which was excellent. The really cool thing about the trips was that I have actually visited with every member of my family, my brother and both sisters as well as all of our children. Then as we were leaving whom should we run into at the airport but the Bluncks. Korbin and Kristin were on their way to Washington and we were able to visit with them at the gate until their plane left.