hillbilly heaven

awhile back i was lamenting with some of the behrs about the fact that we haven't been able to take our annual beach vacation the past couple years. we decided that if we couldn't make it to the beach we should at least do the next best thing, which is obviously branson. we took a short but sweet trip to the ozark mountains to eat deliciously authentic mexican food and play at silver dollar city.  

waiting in line to see the pretty girls at the saloon show

megan . jacob . shelly . matthew . gracie

words can't really describe what was going on here. it was voted hands down the best part of the trip. there is a fairly large ride at silver dollar city called the giant barn swing. as someone who is not especially a fan of roller coasters, i would personally rank this as a medium level thrill ride. you would think that a macho high school graduate would be able to handle such a ride, but you would be wrong. soon after the ride began matthew started crying like a little girl. he was hanging on for dear life saying things like "no, no, no" and "please make it stop". it was hilarious.

jacob . matthew . gracie . kim

he did manage to pull it together and we all got gangsta-fied and took one of those old time photos.  i just don't know why so many guns are pointed at me.

matthew . gracie . jacob

marilyn . chris . kim . shelly . megan

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we'll [forget to] leave the light on for ya

i have been quite excited about the arrival of some house guests that were here over the weekend. [i LOVE house guests...hint, hint] my mom and the behr parentals road tripped to kc to watch matthew wrestle in the lee's summit holiday invitational, because i can't think of a better way to celebrate the christmas season than spending two days watching a bunch of scantily clad high school boys roll around on top of each other.

we love those vikings!

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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!

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the behrs and the vikings

matthew and jacob have the distinct privilege of playing football for the francis howell vikings. i have the distinct privilege of showing up at their games and embarrassing them to no end. it is quite enjoyable. sometimes their teammates tease them, but i know they're just jealous that no one has brought a large sign with their name on it. i mean really...what's better than that?

matthew . shelly . the sign

jacob . shelly . the homecoming game

i also took some matthew.jacob.gracie photos
and this is one of my favorites.

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francis howell viking football

i have a new favorite football player [though i probably didn't have one to begin with]. matthew is a freshman at my high school this year and decided to play football. monday was the one and only game i'll get to see this year, so i had to pack a lot of spirit into that hour and a half!! i'm sure he was really pleased, and not at all embarrassed, by my artistic sign and the fact that i was frantically waving it around while screaming "go 43", and "good job 43" for the entire game. i didn't earn the most spirited pommer trophy two years in a row for nothing!

jacob, me, and gracie

[with a very tiny matthew in the background]

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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

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