We made it to Utah!

It was so good to see these four all together again.  The boys were in heaven seeing the twins.  They had missed them so much.

Bros.

Once we added Ethan to the mix, we were complete.

I love my kids!!!!

We got Charlie and Mom to jump into the picture.

These boys.  Too cool for school. 

Alaina was itching to braid that too-long hair of Ethan's.  (I'll always be jealous of his head of hair!)

So pretty.

This kid rocks his new glasses.

The sadness happened.  Jason passed up Alaina.  Barely.

Sunday evening.  I miss having all these kids around my kitchen table.  I'm not a fan of the whole growing up and leaving home thing.  (well, sometimes I am...hehe)  But I wish I could have it more often.

 

August 2026

After being home a total of three days, the twins and I packed into the car and started our drive to Utah.  Our second morning of driving, we reached Carthage, Illinois.  We stopped at Carthage Jail and went through the tour.  This was the first time the twins had been there, and I'm so glad we were able to stop.

The jail that Jospeh & Hyrum Smith spent their last days of life before their martyrdom.  It is a sobering place to be.

The actual door that was shot through with the bullet that hit Hyrum Smith.  The missionaries that took us through told us that they had to stop people from touching the hole because so many people had rubbed it that they had started to rub away the wood.

After a good lunch, we drove to Nauvoo.  We stopped first by the hotel we were staying at, and then walked to the temple.

Apparently they just finished building the Visitor's Center, and it was really well done.

We also took the horse ride around Nauvoo.

The sunset was beautiful on the temple.

And over Nauvoo.  I can see why leaving was so difficult.

The next morning we decided to go through a session before we got back on the road.  I'm so glad we did.  the temple is so unique and beautiful inside.

I took this picture in Nebraska the next morning, because it was so darn flat.  You could see forever.

 

West Virginia Homecoming

August 16th, 2026

Almost heaven, West Virginia
Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River
Life is old there, older than the trees
Younger than the mountains, growin' like a breeze

Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, Mountain Mama
Take me home, country roads

We made it!  After our whirlwind journey throughout Brazil was so much fun. It was also chaotic and exhausting.  It was so nice to finally get home, even if it was for just a few days.

Austin and Alaina both gave lovely homecoming talks.  They had been a little disenchanted with the idea of giving their homecoming talks here in West Virginia.  Although it feels home to me, it is still just a place that their family moved to after they left home (Georgia) for college.  They don't feel any real connection here, and they really don't even know very many people in the ward.

It was pure serendipity, then, to find out that Richelle and Brianna Fuller were just happening to be traveling through West Virginia on their way back up north for Brianna's school, the very day that the twins were giving their homecoming.  The Fuller's brought back the feeling of 'home' in the twins homecoming.  It was lovely to have them here for a quick 12 hours.

Congratulations, twinnies, on a honorable release from your full-time missions.  We are so very proud of you!

Sorry for all the pictures of me...but I really wanted a good picture with each of the kids.

By the time I was done, Austin had enough with the photo shoot.

We all got back together for dinner.  Anne and Glenn had made the herculean effort to get to church for the twins' reunion.  These days it is very difficult for Glenn to get up, eat, take his medicine and dress for church before 10:30.   Anne must have been exhausted, and I know Glenn was drugged up pretty good to help with the pain.  We were all so grateful for their sacrifice to be there.  It was lovely to get them back after a rest at home.

 

Some of our extra experiences in Foz do Iguacu.  

We visited this small, family-run, chocolate factory and were delighted to walk through the entire place.  The son of the owner was the one who walked us through and he was so kind.  Even though they were small, they went through every process from the 'bean to the bar.'  They selected specific beans that were fully ripe, crushed them, processed them, created their chocolate and packaged them.  It was o fun, and the chocolate was so yummy.

We visited the tri-country confluence.  We are standing on the soil of Brazil and to the right you can see Argentina, and on the left Paraguay.

Alaina loved all the street art that we saw in all these cities.

(This was actually our arrival to Foz do Iguacu, but this is the way we loaded and deplaned.)

Robert didn't know that he was famous, but we saw his picture on the wall. 

And we were finally off.  Thank you Brazil for a once in a lifetime trip.  We loved seeing all the amazing things that we saw and we especially loved all the warm, kind people that we met.  We'll remember this experience for always.

America - Here we come.

 

Iguazu Falls - Foz do Iguaçu

Day 3.   We spent our third day visiting Iguacu Falls along the Argentinian border.  It was so much fun watching Alaina flipping between Portuguese and Spanish.  I really don't know what we would have done without our cute translator!   

This side of the falls took us along the top of the ridge, so we got a completely different view of the falls.  It was so worth the effort.

Here is Austin with his favorite animal - baby jaguar.

He's grown up quite a bit, but he still loves that cat!

One the train to the ridge of the falls.

I don't know what these guys were, but I don't like 'em.

Here was the first fall that we came to.

Double rainbow!

This was the land of rainbows.  It was so beautiful. 

The Two Sisters

Our path.

Feeling the power of this amount of water rushing underneath us, made me feel so small and powerless.

Around every single corner was a waterfall more magnificent than the one before

This was the end of the line.

This was so amazing.

And by the time we got back to the front of the park, we were all, once again, exhausted.

We saw this bird just hanging out.