Check out Carey's blog at www.careymcculloch.blogspot.com to catch up on their family and the progress of Caden, etc.

Our Idaho summer was delightful with temperatures mostly in the 70's and 80's and a few days made it to 90.

My sister Evelyn who lives in Ohio, was walking across the street when she got hit by a car last May. She had a broken neck, back, multiple ribs, collar bone, femur and tibia of left leg plus much bruising and concussion, etc. It is amazing that she survived, but after months of treatment and therapy, she is walking on her own again and has made marvelous progress. We are so thankful and praise God for her recovery so far. She is still having physical therapy.

In July we went to Missoula, MT and Charles did a full marathon and I did the half. We did not have much training in due to our extended trip. But we did fine. In Sept we went to Bozeman, MT and again Charles did the full and I did the half marathon. It was nice to visit several friends while there also. In Oct we spent a week in Kelowna, British Columbia and both did a full marathon there.

A few days after we came back from Canada we went to Sacramento for about 5 weeks to help our daughter Carey and family while they were getting ready to move to Walla Walla, WA. We left and went to Shelly's in Portland for Thanksgiving and Cheryl's family also joined us there. We were home for a little over a week when Carey called to see if we could possibly come back and help her some more. Greg was already working in Walla Walla since the 1st of Nov. So we flew down to Sac for nearly 2 weeks and then drove their SUV, loaded with things they would need until their household goods arrived, to Walla Walla. Carey and Greg and Kyler and Caden flew to Walla Walla the next day after we got there. We caught a ride with Kent's parents to Spokane and Carey and Greg drove up a couple days later after signing papers for their new house that they had just bought. So they were here for Christmas with our family and other relatives.

Shelly and Charli Jo flew to Ohio to spend a few days with my sister at Christmas time.

Cheryl and Kent are still at their same jobs in Spokane. Melissa turned 15 recently and is in 9th grade at Upper Columbia Academy. Melissa is a very creative girl and she loves to read. She has also been taking cello lessons until her cello broke. Rylan is in 7th grade and enjoys playing the trumpet. He has had a big growth spurt lately and is taller than his Mom now and passed me a while ago.

Shelly and Charli Jo are still in Portland. Shelly is very busy with her CPA firm. Charli Jo is in 8th grade. She plays clarinet and is very creative and enjoys sewing, crocheting, writing books, etc. Charli Jo has also had a growth spurt during the past several months.

Greg has challenges with his new job as CFO at Walla Walla General Hospital. But he will do well. They like Walla Walla and will enjoy it there. We like it because they are much closer to us now. Kyler is in kindergarten and will be starting at a new school shortly. The school is very close to their home. It is amazing how much Kyler knows about so many things. Very bright. Caden has progressed marvelously well over this year. He has graduated from PT, OT, and speech therapies. He is now age appropriate in those areas. He will be 3 on Jan 9. He is doing quite well with feeding. He is eating all by mouth now and has not used the g-tube for about 4 months.. His food is mostly pureed, but working on chewing. Occasionally he will feed himself a few bites, but prefers being fed. Caden has a great sense of humor.

Looking forward to the adventures that 2012 will bring.

Our last port for our 12 day cruise was Civitecchio and we took the train into Rome where we spent a day sightseeing. Went to the Spanish steps, the Colosseum, the Vatican and museum and Sistine Chapel, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain and we toured around the city on a double decker bus. And, of course, we had to have some Italian gelato which we all enjoyed. We surely had fun with all of our family joining us on the cruise to help us celebrate our 50th anniversary. The kids and grandkids all departed a couple days before Charles and I did. So we went by train to Florence and Pisa. Really enjoyed both of those cities. And we had not been to either of those before.

Florence is a beautiful city and has the best gelato that we had anyplace. Mmmm mango gelato!

We climbed to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa and a great views all the way around. It is a beautiful tower and we walked all over the city.

We took the train back to Rome and flew from there to Paris and then to Seattle and Spokane and that was the end of our 2 month trip. Got home the end of June after a fabulous time in 12 different countries of which 6 were new countries for us. I think that makes about 63 countries that we have visited over our lifetime so far.

After a day at sea we went to Naples which turned out to be a dirty city with trash piled up all over. We took taxis to Herculaneum ruins and were the first tourists there that morning, so enjoyed seeing the place on our own. These ruins are in very good condition. We later went to Pompeii which is very impressive covering a large area the it was much more crowded with tourists.