just the eleven of us

one of the [many] reasons i was sad for college to end was the thought that i would never have the opportunity to go on another genuine spring break trip again. the kind where you pile into a caravan with a bunch of friends and head somewhere fun, usually the beach, to play in the sun.

luckily i was wrong.

we just spent a great week hanging at the beach with some fabulous friends who feel like family. here are the key players of "spring break extravaganza two thousand ten"...

• the williams family: my mom and i

• the behr family: chris, kim, matthew, jacob and gracie - we have gone to church with this family for years...before they were even a family, way back in the salem church days

• the schneider family: john and joanie - the parents of kim...who also went to salem [trivia fact - my mom, john and joanie even went to grade school and high school together]

• the taylor family: gary and bonnie - also salem-ites...and the parents of my friend jen who lives in colorado, i've known them since i was two!

Read more

i want to go back to the beach

this was the extent of my to-do list for the past week:

• float in pool
• play in ocean
• look for shells
• eat lots of snow crab

my mom and i spent the past week in pensacola beach, florida with friends from church that we've known forever. this was our second year to go on vacation together and it was quite fun.

matthew . john . joanie . chris . kim . marilyn

shelly . jacob . gracie

jacob and i on jet ski day in the bay

one night we drove into pensacola to eat at maguire's, they are famous for having great burgers. they also have a very cool tradition of letting everyone who visits sign a dollar bill and staple it to the ceiling. they have over $550,000 in dollar bills, and that's not a typo! there is money everywhere. i think i could live on their dollar bills for the rest of my life. of course we didn't want to miss the opportunity to leave our mark in history, so we all signed a bill and up it went.

jacob stapling our dollar to the ceiling for all eternity

the room we were in looked like it was a recent addition since it didn't have nearly as much money in it as the rest of the place. also, if you ever eat here, be sure to go to the bathroom. i won't spoil the surprise, just go.

one last picture of my favorite coast line on planet earth

Read more