Back on the road again – the kids were SO excited to get to Nama’s house.

Nama lives in Cape Girardeau, Missouri (I totally based the small town in the Carrington Springs series off Cape!). It’s such a cute town. We love it!

We got in just in time for dinner, got the kids fed and off to showers and bed and then Nama pulled this out of the fridge.

Guys. My grandmother completely knows the way to my heart. This is her famous peach pie. It’s incredible. The best summer pie ever.

The next day, we woke up, played around the house for a little while and took some pictures on the front porch. The kids think Nama’s house is so cool because it has a basement (sweet little desert children). Then we drove about an hour to Lambert’s, home of the “throwed rolls”.

It took basically no time at all for the kids to get the hang of throwing their hands up when they wanted a hot roll tossed across the restaurant at them. 😉 I have the best memories of going to this place as a kid – so so fun taking my own kids there!

I’m pretty sure they would have just stayed there forever if we’d let them. Ha!

After lunch, we drove to the place where my Tapa is buried. Nathan was very insistent that we go there. He’s heard so many stories about Tapa. It was super special to go.

The kids brought American flags to put in the vase to decorate it for the 4th of July. Such a sweet time. At one point, I just sat down on the floor right there in front of it and got to tell the kids all about how Tapa was with Jesus now. Considering Jesus was one of my Tapa’s favorite things to talk about, it meant so much to me. I wish so much that he could have met my kids, but I know he will someday!

We rounded out our busy day at a park and these poor children who are used to a negative amount of humidity were just drenched. It was disgusting. Ha! Parker also was pretty much all done with everything by this time, so blowing off some steam at a park was a good idea. 😉 We went back to Nama’s and he had a full-on meltdown. My little introvert can only extrovert for so long. 😉 A good night of sleep was just what he needed and he woke up significantly happier the next day!

The next day was the 4th of July! Cape does an AMAZING display of American flags in town, so we dressed up in our patriotic clothes and headed to the park.

So so much fun! So amazing to see so many flags!

As we were leaving, this couple drove up in this old army truck and Nathan of course sweet talked them into letting the kids try it out. The child can talk anyone into anything. They LOVED it.

We ended the night at my aunt Carolyn’s house and celebrated the 4th with an incredible meal (per Aunt Carolyn’s usual!) and the BEST apple pie ever on the planet. There’s a church that sells them as a fundraiser in town and so every time we go, we have to eat at least one. There was a point in time where I vowed to marry someone from that church so I could eat apple pie anytime I wanted to. Obviously I didn’t stick with that. 😉

Such a wonderful visit with Nama! We were all sad to leave.