Our family has a temple challenge going on

We hope to visit each temple in Brasil while we are living here

You are able to do the same ordinance's and special things in each temple but its a good excuse to get out and explore

So far we have visited Manaus and Campinas as a family

We still have Recife, Sao Paulo, Curitiba, Porto Alegre, Belem, Fortaleza (under construction), Rio (under construction) and Brasila (site planned)

We hope the Brasilia temple will be completed before we leave Brasil, fingers crossed!

 Jo and Gwen were not allowed inside the temple so I hung out on the grounds and in the waiting area while Rob took the older three in to perform baptisms

Jo is already talking about the first temple she wants to go into when she turns 12

 The landscaping at temples is always beautiful

This temple was no exception

It made it even cooler because we know the main landscaper that designed the plans for this temple

Goodbye for now

Our family loved the few days we spent exploring the Amazon with the Willis'

Day number 4 we headed back towards the city of Manaus

About 2 hours away from port as we were chilling on the top deck and playing card games we felt the wind start to pick up and looked out and saw giant black clouds ahead

We scrambled into quick pick-up mode and gathered all the hammocks, towels, swim suits and other gear that was around the deck

We stuffed things into back and backpacks and quickly shuttled them to the bottom deck

Here's a view of all our gear for 14 people!

As quickly as we gathered all the gear and headed down below (because the captain was fearful of to much weight being on the top of the boat) it started to pour

Rain, wind, and tons and tons of rain

Kids huddled together, parents huddled around kids who were all huddling around the bags because there was no other place to go

At the height of the storm we thought it might be a good idea to pray as a group

With the storm blowing around us Rob prayed and shortly after the captain drove into a cove which gave us some protection from the wind

We waited it out in the cove and were thankful for the protection we had been given

Eventually the storm calmed, lunch was served (our cook was an angel) and laughing and talking resumed

It will be a trip to remembered!

The crew with our boat in the background!

Animal Encounters

When you book a trip for the Amazon you hope to see some wildlife

We left for this trip wondering if we would

Some co-workers of Rob's said that they did not see any wildlife on the Amazon

Thankfully our trip was different

Many mornings we woke to the sound of howler monkeys in the distance

Adorable little things that jumped into our boat to eat some bananas

Catching caiman at night

Swimming with pink river dolphins

Fairly ugly things but they're still cool to see

My girls described touching them like holding a hotdog

Feeding the pirarucu

They are among the worlds largest fresh water fish

I remember seeing these in aquariums in Washington D.C.

Never in my life could I imagine a few years later my family would be observing them in Brasil

Here fishy, fishy

Piranha fishing...

A piranha or piraña is a member of family Characidae in order Characiformes, an omnivorous freshwater fish that inhabits South American rivers. In Venezuela, they are called caribes. They are known for their sharp teeth and powerful jaws.

After all the things I had heard about piranha's from movies like...Finding Nemo and the like I was expecting a big ferocious fish 

We dropped our lines into the water with a bit of raw meat attached and started catching these little guys

They did have teeth that looked super sharp and while we were on this river cruise I was reading the book, River of Doubt.  It talks about President's Roosevelt's journey down parts of the undiscovered Amazon.  During one part of the book it talks about a man entering the water with a small cut and being consumed by Piranhas.  I just thought they would be a bit larger in size

During this part of the boat trip we made sure Gwen wasn't dragging her hands in the water

Gwen caught this fish all by herself!

They were fairly simple to catch; attach a bit of raw meat (I left that to Rob or Jo), drop the line in the water and hit the surface of the water with the tip of the bamboo and then a quick tug when you felt something grab the line 

A little R&R

During our two weeks exploring the Amazon there were a lot of cool, amazing moments

There were also a lot of calm quiet moments which was nice

Lots of resting, reading, playing games, catching up and just chilling

Our whole family needed this