We had a very nice Thanksgiving with friends and family.  After Charles' birthday, our family all stayed to celebrate Thanksgiving together.  Since we were planning to be away at Christmas, we also celebrated and early Christmas that same evening.  It was so nice spending time with everyone.  After Thanksgiving we went to Walla Walla for about 10 days to help our with Kyler and Caden again just before we left on our big trip.








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 Another fun trip we made in 2012 was to Texas for an Africa reunion of folks who have worked in various places in Africa.  Always inspiring to hear all the stories and how God blessed each one and good to see so many friends and meet new ones too.

Many months ago, our daughters thought it would be a great idea to surprise their Dad with a big surprise birthday party for his memorable 75 years. So many plans were actively going on for several months. Of course, I was involved to help get photos of him of special things in his life. It is hard to do when he is always with me!! I would quickly grab photos from albums while Charles was mowing the lawn. I borrowed shoes from his closet to use at the marathon/running themed party they were planning--I sort of got caught on the shoe thieving, but he did not catch on to anything. All the plans fell into place. Many people were invited, and it was lovely to have so many friends and relatives come for the party which was at Cheryl and Kent's home near Spokane. When we drove into Cheryl's yard, there were lots of cars there, and he still did not catch on. He thought they had just invited a lot of people over for lunch that day. When he walked into the house, all the people yelled "Surprise" and then he finally caught on that it was a birthday celebration for him. We enjoyed a pasta meal similar to what we might eat prior to a marathon. Gatorade was the drink of choice. The special cake featured a marathon runner at the finish line with the time of his last marathon, which was in Walla Walla about a month before his November 17 birthday. They had a special shirt made for him too.





 

 We enjoy the beauty of the summer flowers around our home and then the lovely snow laden and frosty trees in winter.

We had a lot of company during the summer, which is always nice.  And our grandkids all spent time with us as well.  We had a lot of fun with them.  Sometimes they were all here at one time and other times they came one at a time for a week or so.

It is always nice to have family get togethers, and we had a very nice one at cousin Tommy and Amanda Cutting's wedding in July on a nice warm beautiful day overlooking Lake Coeur d'Alene.

Celebrating Kent and Cheryl's 20th anniversary on the cruise ship Carnival Liberty

 In June we celebrated Cheryl and Kent's 20th anniversary with them  and Melissa and Rylan by going on a 7 day Western Caribbean cruise leaving from Miami.  We were on the Carnival Liberty ship and it was a lot of fun. 

We enjoyed the underwater national park in Cozumel, Mexico.  So many kinds of coral and fish.







Then on to Belize where English is the main language which was nice for us.  We toured a few hours to the Mayan Xunantunich Ruins and explored and climbed the ruins.  It was also interesting to learn that there are quite a few Amish people who have settled in Belize, and they  produce about 60% of the fresh food in that country.





On the Isla of Roatan, Honduras we had so much fun ziplining.  Charles and I have done it before and really enjoyed it.







At the Grand Caymans, we had a good time playing with the dolphin and getting up close and personal!





 Went to the turtle farm on Grand Caymans also.  We were able to hold some of the baby sea turtles.