The Salyers twins are in a ‘quaternary marriage,’ They all live in Virginia with their sons, whom they are raising together.
When identical twins Brittany and Briana Salyers grew up in Delaware, Easter meant traveling to a cousin’s property in rural Virginia for a massive family gathering with scores of cousins from their mother’s side.
They last went in 2016 before meeting identical twin brothers, Josh and Jeremy, now 39, during the 2017 Twins Day Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio, where they later married in a joint ceremony.
It was also before they welcomed Jett (born to Brittany and Josh, who announced the birth in January 2021) and Jax (born around four months later to Briana and Jeremy).
Briana and Brittany are returning, this time with their spouses and children.
The Salyerses, who share the sprawling country estate Smith Mountain Manor in central Virginia, are packing their Volkswagen bus and driving the three hours to the ranch outside Richmond to spend time with an expected 60 relatives at the celebration on Sunday morning.
“I’m so excited to introduce Jeremy and Josh to this side of the family for a holiday,” Briana, 37, says, “and have them be a part of the Easter tradition.”
Easter egg hunts and a visit from the Easter bunny are part of the custom. Jett and Jax have been practicing egg hunts in the manor house’s library in preparation for the latter.
“The babies are very excited about the trip,” Briana says, adding, “our parents are excited but a little apprehensive.” Although she is concerned about how the kids will fare in their car seats for such a long journey, she hopes the VW’s mini-TV (and naps) will assist.
The boys are cousins, but they are more genetically related to siblings — and are classified as quaternary twins — since their parents are identical twins who married similar twins (a rare occurrence known as a “quaternary marriage”).
Jett and Jax, like their parents, frequently dress similarly, and for Easter, they will be sporting matching ensembles of pink khaki shorts and blue short-sleeved shirts and vests.
“We do everything together as a family. We’re inseparable,” Briana previously stated. “It’s almost like this magical existence.”
Following their Easter break, Jeremy and Josh’s manor residence, which also serves as a wedding venue, is set to become busy with weekly weddings as the season begins. Both attorneys, Brianna and Brittany, can now spend more time with the boys because they can work from home.
Josh and Jeremy have been planting a big vegetable garden and a variety of fruit-tree orchards of apples, peaches, pears, kiwis, and blueberries, and the family will soon be eating from them.
“We’re hoping just to replace our entire diet with homegrown foods and fruits,” Jeremy explains.
They recently brought the boys to a local circus, which included numerous non-homegrown goods, such as cotton candy and popcorn, as a tribute to Briana and Brittany’s earliest memories of going to the circus.
“They talk about it all the time. They say, ‘Can we watch the jug (for jugglers)?” Brittany explains. The boys, who share a bedroom, think there is a circus under their improvised circus “tent” (a.k.a. their covers).
“Even when life is quiet,” she observes, “it’s still pretty chaotic around here.”