Matt in Peru

 Matt had the awesome opportunity to go to Peru on a humanitarian trip in early June.

These guys saw him off at the airport the night of Ben's b-day.

Mostly I just have screenshots from the instagram account that posted while he was gone.  

(The kids gave up their phones for the 2.5 weeks they were gone so it was up to the parent leaders to post updates)

Matt didn't know anyone else that was going prior to the trip.

However, by the end, he had gotten to know everyone and became pretty close with a few.

   

First they flew to Miami and stayed the night before they went on to Peru.

     

   

 

One of the reasons Matt chose to go to Iquitos Peru is because his cousin is there serving an LDS mission right now.  The chances of them getting to see each other were slim but he still thought it would be cool to be in the same city :)

Andy and I got a very excited text from his sister one morning with a picture showing both of our boys outside a church building!  Out of all the wards our nephew Ty was assigned to in the area, it just happened to be the one Matt's group was connected to while they were there.  It was a miracle!  So, not only did they get to see each other once, they got to participate in multiple ward activities together.

Pretty neat!

The project they worked on was building a school for young children.

They were gone over Father's Day so they sent a message via Instagram...

They got to swim in the Amazon and see pink dolphins.

Each of them took a second on Instagram and told their dads Happy Father's Day.

...including Ty :)

There was something about losing at the games and then having to dance.  Apparently, Matt had to dance a lot :)

They left their mark on one of the walls of the school...

Josh was out of town doing FSY in San Diego but the rest of us went to the airport to pick Matt up.

This is Steve, one of Matt's trip leaders.

Matt was the only one from his group on his flight from Miami but we waited around a little bit and a whole bunch more came in.

These pictures cracked me up since these guys both went to do their hair thing at the same time...

Josh came home the next day and then the following day Matt distributed gifts.

He showed us the tie that cousin Ty gave him...

and a tie that a member gave him...

He loved the Inca Kola...

He was pretty happy about a cool knife he bought...

A blanket made from baby alpaca wool...

For Ben, Matt bought a stuffed capybara that wraps around your arm and spins its tail around.

For Josh, a cool necklace...

For Abby, a bracelet (she brought one home for him from her humanitarian trip to Tahiti)

And then he was excited to show us a shot glass he bought for the family.

(Abby had bought one in Nebraska on her way home from her trip)

For Andy, a preserved piranha!

Afterward, he gave me the cool, alpaca bag he was pulling everything from :)

He had a fabulous trip and made wonderful friends.  So glad he was able to go and have these once ini a lifetime experiences!