will sweat for chikin

my second first 100 was a smashing success. the lee's summit chick-fil-a just opened this week (finally...chick-n-mini's for breakfast!) and i was lucky number 16. my first camp out was back in november, when i was wearing seventeen layers of clothing and hibernating in the tent for warmth. this one was a teensy bit different in the sense that if i hadn't been able to borrow a canopy to block the sun, we would have certainly withered away in the scorching heat. but the weather wasn't the only difference, this time i had friends! donald and amber (a former co-worker) decided to be adventurous and brave the heat with me.

coincidentally this opening happened to fall on chick-fil-a appreciation day, and since we were on the outside edge of the parking lot we became the unofficial spokespeople. there was a lot of confusion about the store not actually being open yet, along with a good number of people who assumed we were participating in some sort of 'occupy chick-fil-a' movement. we did have an actual protestor show up late in the day, but he just politely stood on the street corner with his sign.

we had a fun time playing games, eating free food and getting our picture taken by just about every other car that went by. we really should have kept a tally for that. the heat gave us a rough couple hours in the late afternoon, but once the sun went down all was well. amber and i did get the giggles around 3:30am when we were woken up by the butternut delivery man...the hilarity of sleeping in a parking lot voluntarily is compounded in the wee hours of the morning.

donald and amber at our campsite

the guestbook...to document our visitors

 our free chick-fil-a!

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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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33 pennies

it's pretty standard for my birthday to last longer than just one day and this year was no exception. the free food started rolling in about week early, but the best part came on my birthday eve. we rolled in from omaha around 9pm and the most spectacular birthday penny scavenger hunt you have ever seen was waiting. there were thirty four pennies hidden all over the house, one from each year i've been alive. (yes, technically that makes the title of this post incorrect, but i'm only thirty three...it's confusing) donald left me a note and a game board and the search was on. i was a penny finding machine, and i was pretty good at finding the bonus prizes too. i blazed through the first half in about thirty minutes and then it started getting tricky. kim and my mom helped a bit, but there were a few stragglers that we couldn't find until the next day. it was SUPER fun.

after a breakfast of gas station donuts on my birthday morning we headed to the pool for a bit before my mom "threw me a birthday party" at noodles for lunch.

mom . donald . kim

shelly . christy . tommy

the nighttime festivities included a super fun game night at grant & erica's house. we feasted on cheese ball, funky punch and peach crisp/cobbler/pie and played the night away. it was hilarious and fun. the best birthday game night i ever did have.

donald . shelly

erica . grant . missy . kim

i just love birthdays. and i'm so thankful i have family and friends that know that and try really hard to make it special and fun. i enjoyed lots of birthday wishes and had a perfectly lovely day. happy 33rd birthday to me!

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