Who doesn't love a roller coaster?

First, we apologize for the lack of maintenance on this blog. It's been a number of weeks since the last post and we would like to apologize to our loyal readers...if there are any...
This past month has been somewhat of a roller coaster. About one month ago, Brett was informed that his company had to let him go because of debt-related issues. Being one of the most junior executives made him one of the ideal candidates. He also heard that his mom was diagnosed with stage three cancer that very same day. That was when the fun started to begin...

We decided to visit Cusco, Machu Picchu, and Lake Titicaca over the next week seeing Incan ruins, floating islands, and a myriad of churches. Machu Picchu was impressive, as always, and Lake Titicaca didn't disappoint. The one thing we probably could have done without was the 21 hour bus ride from Lima to Cusco.

We originally thought it would be a great opportunity to see some of the landscape,

but soon realized that our 21hour bus ride had turned in to its own form of the vomit comet (Surprisingly not us).

After our trip, we packed up our things and made the long journey back to Missouri. Brett only got a few hours of sleep that night we arrived before he drove 18 hours with Sidney (Stephanie's little brother), Terry (a family friend), and four horses to Colorado for an elk hunting trip. They had a lot of fun, but didn't see any elk until driving back to Missouri (darn it).
We're now back in Missouri and will be spending our time between West Plains and St. Louis as we look for jobs and be with Brett's mom while she does her chemo treatments.

Just saw this picture of Brett's old hair...I miss it...sigh...

These last 8 months have been quite interesting : moving to Peru, adapting, moving back to the states, adapting, jobs, family, chemo, etc... But the funny thing is we are just as happy as we were 11 months ago when we got married. Weird? Life IS a roller coaster and depending on how you look at it, it can be extremely nerve-racking and scary or you can just sit and enjoy the ride...