We went back to the Midwest to visit Grandma and Grandpa. They took us to creeks...
Taught us how to catch crawdads, float down the stream, and swing off a rope.
We had snacks on the banks and threw rocks into the water. 
We got to visit some best buddies. Owen and J are only a few weeks apart. Its so fun to have little friends to play with on vacation.
Marin and JB loved seeing each other again and played all afternoon.We spent the Fourth there celebrating with Grandpa Tim who shot off lots of good fireworks and let Marin pick out every one that was next. And Marin got to do sparklers for the first time!
Yeah for the 4th of July! Yeah for Grandma and Grandpa! We miss you so much and can't wait to see you in October!We also visited Joplin, where the Tornado hit a few months back. It was sad, shocking, and indescribable - the damage that a single tornado can make. It looks like everything was thrown into a blender, or that there was a war there.
The building you see in the background on the left is the hospital that was destroyed. Normally from this neighborhood you would not be able to see the hospital because of the houses and trees. But because most everything was leveled you can now see right through the neighborhoods all the way to the hospital. We heard so many stories of how people in the surrounding areas jumped in and cared for their neighbors in Joplin, how the farmers brought in their trucks and tractors and cleaned up the streets before FEMA even got there. How neighbors would dig their way out of the rubble and not run for safety but run to the house next door and start digging out their neighbor. The courage and bravery, the tears for all the loss is almost too much to understand.
