"He seriously thinks you are the cat's meow!"

Oh hey there. Yes you are still reading about Fall Weekend. Great, hope you are excited! :)

Best friend pics. The first one is us trying to be normal and the second one is us being ourselves. 

Senior swag. Notice how two of the "S"s are backwards. Sorry we're not sorry...

Shenanigans.

AJ and Tyler angry about the Glitter Patrol.

Saturday afternoon we had the Muck Fest. Imagine 300 people throwing flour and shaving cream at each other. Crazy. I have been to Fall Weekend four times and it still freaks me out when people run at me with hands full of shaving cream.

After Muck Fest it was time for the annual YL North Shore football game. This year it was New Trier vs. GBS. I honestly can't tell you who won though, because I took about 80 pictures of us standing on the sidelines and about 1 of the actual game. To us the most entertaining part of the game was the costumes. Can you spot the raunchy police officer? Hilarious.

Then it was picture time!

Fall Weekend 2011

Fall Weekend 2012: How well we replicated the original is up for debate. My excuse for why I look extremely troubled is that I was thinking, "This is my last Fall Weekend ever..."

I am seriously so thankful for Mal! We decided to recreate the picture we took together last year at Fall Weekend in the exact same spot. It may or may not have turned out decently but we decided that taking funny face pictures was much more fun. Mal is endless laughter and wisdom and that is a seriously wonderful combination. I keep telling her that she has to visit me in college or I won't know what to do! Even if I'm a YL leader next year, I'm still going to need my own leader!

Sarah, Mal

Kara, Heather

Mal, Alana

We loved Ben's football gear but he decided to be sad because he didn't get to play in the final game. It's okay though because Kevin was a good friend and decided to cheer him up. But I told ya we were serial sideline snappin'! Get it? Get it? (Yeah my jokes are terrible. Just nod and smile.)

The sunset over camp on Saturday was incredible. It reminded me of sunsets at Timber Wolf this summer. I love that God created a beautiful place like Lake Geneva and that we got to spend an absolutely incredible 48 hours there without worrying or stressing or anything. 

A mattress in a tree. Only at Young Life camp. Seriously.

Before dinner we hung out at the coffee shop and LK got a picture with her "husband", Spiderman, who had been dressed up all afternoon. I love how easily friendships are formed at Fall Weekend and Young Life camp in general. People are so nice and instead of it being weird when you say hi to people you don't know, it's weird if you don't say hi to them.

Saturday night we were treated to a concert by musical-prodigy-in-residence, Blake Aaron Guthrie. We all "aww"ed at his love songs and listened intently when he talked about his journey with Jesus. I heard Blake two years ago at Work Weekend, and it just seemed like a God thing for me that he was back again for the last time I will be at Fall Weekend with the North Shore. 

It is crazy to me that the next time I might be on Fall Weekend or Polar Bear Weekend or Winter Weekend or any combination of the three is with a different YL area when I'm in college. I am so thankful for my four Fall Weekends with YL North Shore. I can't believe the first time I had ever heard of Young Life was November 2009 when I stepped on the bus to my very first Fall Weekend -- that's what started it all!

"How much does a polar bear weigh? Enough to break the ice!"

The first thing I did today when I got home from Fall Weekend was go on Pinterest. Surprising? Probably not. So I also shouldn't have been surprised when this was one of the first pins on my feed:

Sista, preach. I am not kidding when I say that Fall Weekend is the silliest and most ridiculous weekend of the year. It must be the combination of living with 50 other girls in cabins down the hall, the incredible amount of sugar and junk food we all bring with us, and being able to "unplug" from our phones and actually live in the moment instead of getting caught up in liking photos on Instagram sending selfies on Snapchat.

Young Life North Shore drove up to Lake Geneva, WI for Fall Weekend this year. It is our second year going for Fall Weekend and my fourth trip there--I went both sophomore and junior years for Work Weekend as well. Lake Geneva isn't the same as Timber Wolf but I love it just as much. We left on Friday night and you could practically feel how excited everyone was.

Lauren-Kate, Annie, Alaynah, Kendall, Caroline

Meet my cabin! There were 4 senior girls and our leader, Alaynah. It is YL North Shore tradition to wear onesies to our first breakfast of Fall Weekend. I seriously love traditions like these. It's hilarious to see the reactions of the kids from other areas when 20 or 30 girls all show up to breakfast looking like adult-size babies. But what I also love is that everyone thinks it's funny and everyone is all in. There is no "I'm too cool for this" or "I don't want to" at Fall Weekend. I love laughing at myself and I'm glad my friends are people who do too.

Another YL tradition: ketchup writing. It seriously sucks for the people washing dishes, but this is just too hilarious to pass up. During breakfast a leader came up to our table and delivered a plate with three ketchup hearts on it. Hilarious. We had to find out who had sent it and we had to write back, pronto. Oh and of course I had to capture it. Below are the messages we received from our not-so-secret admirer table:

A collective invitation to Homecoming. Why not?

Oh thanks. We were glad that some teenage boys actually appreciated the modesty and cold-weather protection of the onesie. We promptly sent back some winky faces and more hearts.

More onesie photoshoots. If you were ever wondering, it is hilariously awkward to wear a onesie and it is even more hilariously awkward to have to pose for a picture in a onesie alone. Tyler and Gabbie took different approaches in order to handle the awkward.

First club of Saturday! Whatever Young Life camp I go to, I am always so happy when I step into the club room. There is so much anticipation for club and being able to break through those doors and sprint to the front of the room, so close to the stage, is seriously one of the best feelings ever. I love the excitement when the next song we can belt at the top of our lungs comes on and how everyone knows program by the end of the weekend and recites the lines along with the program characters. I love that this weekend we brought people who had never been to club - how awesome that your first YL Club is with a couple hundred other people?

It was Hannah's birthday and obviously we have to have a better celebration than singing Happy Birthday. You bet we do - spooning her plate! No not the cuddling version. The Young Life version. Obviously we got a little off track with the other silverware and sandwiches and such, but you get it. Happy birthday Hannah! And Tatum and Cailin too!

The North Shore girls decided to get crazy for mealtime once again and give ourselves eye black, football player style... except with glitter. It was hilarious to see people shedding glitter and establishing the Glitter Patrol with Alaynah and the girls in my cabin - basically meaning we went up to the North Shore boys and forced them to wear the glitter too.

 Parker loves the Glitter Patrol. Glitter in the beard. Sounds like a Ke$ha song. 

Are they trying to be pretty? Are they trying to be ugly? You'll never know.

Team 2 loves field games! There was a little bit of struggling during Baby, Backpack, Bronco...

 ...but obviously we still had a wonderful time!

(p.s. this is only Part 1 of Fall Weekend, so whoopsie daisy if you read till the end and are angry that I am not yet done talking about our 48 hours of fun!)

"Of course I know who Honey Boo Boo is, I spent an hour writing her fan mail!"

Just a little life round up. You'd think a full week of school coming off a 4-day weekend would be easy. Absolutely not. This week has been non-stop crazy, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

s u n d a y

My first Starbucks red cup of the season and my first peppermint mocha ever. Of course this moment had to be documented. Unfortunately I picked a silly time to have coffee (5pm) so I had a date with some sleeping pills later that night.

I'm seriously obsessed with twinkly lights and I love when it gets close enough to Christmas that people start putting them up. I love living so close to Chicago because the lights in the city around Christmastime are just wonderful. Who doesn't love Christmas lights?

 m o n d a y

Young Life club this week was one of the most wonderful I have ever experienced. Everything just seemed right. Especially the sock-sliding and model-strutting competition that happened right after club. Unfortunately we were having too much fun to take quality pictures. But sometimes you just gotta say what the hey and live it up.

t h u r s d a y

Love these girls. It's incredible to me how much time we actually spend with each other - almost four hours every single day. I think that's why we are so hilariously comfortable with each other. Comfortable enough to snuggle up on the studio floor and make ugly faces to each other on Snapchat. Comfortable enough to sit in a circle talking about life and sharing laughs when we really should be warming up and comfortable enough to burst into tears at rehearsal if our days haven't gone quite right.

Sarah's club talk at WyldLife club tonight was about being thankful, and I loved that we got to make a list of all the things we are thankful for with our girls. I loved that they got real and were thankful for everything from Jesus to Walt Disney. 

 Maybe not one of the most controlled WyldLife clubs we have ever had - tonight was chaotic to say the least. But I realized when girls were screaming at people to close their eyes for a game of Mafia or talking every .2 seconds that I am so so thankful for them. They have an energy that most people lose by high school, and I'm so glad I get to experience it again.

P.S. Let's play a game. Can you guess which WL girl spends her free time writing Honey Boo Boo fan mail?

"Nope, just got a case of the McDonald's."

You know those nightmares where you end up onstage in a musical and you have absolutely no idea how you got there and what you're supposed to be doing? 

Oh, you've never had those? Well shoot. I have and that happened in real life tonight. It also involved chugging a fake beer stein and dressing up like a 1800s townsperson. Good thing the real life musical turned out much better than in my nightmares. It involved a lot more singing and laughing and swing dancing than expected.

Kara, Julia, Mal, Kendall, Christi

This afternoon Mal picked me up so we could get dinner and go to Young Life leadership. We obviously had to go to Noodles because it is tradition, and get Wisconsin mac & cheese and giggle about how funny it would be if you tried to tell the Noodles cashier that it was actually Nevada mac & cheese and could you please learn the names of the food you are selling already.

Also in the plan for the night: starting our off-off-Broadway careers at the play Kara is directing this weekend, Beauty and the Beast. They needed more townspeople for the bar scene and obviously 4 extra girls under 21 are perfect for the job!

 

You could say we got pretty into character. 

Arriving 10 minutes before the show starts without any of your lines memorized is musical theatre protocol, right? What about writing the lyrics of the song on your hands? Okay good because that's what we did.

We got the best seats in the house and seriously loved the show. Especially the interruption of scheduled programming for the tiny tot performance of Zip Ah Dee Doo Dah. The performers: cardinals, bluebirds, and a skunk. We were wondering why we weren't cast in this scene instead of the bar scene.

 Intermission was photoshoot time. The girls of Magnolia got a little bit crazy.

The best photo ops happen in big group hugs. We are hyped up on nachos, popcorn, fruit punch and being really proud of  Ms. Director Extraordinaire, Kara Fleharty.

Then it was time to drop Julia off and drive through the mean streets of Chicago until we found more food we wanted to eat. If you ever want to participate in a seriously hilarious car ride (hint: you do), please hop in the car with Mal and Christi at 11pm on a Friday night. Of course we ended up at McDonald's and of course they messed up the order. And of course I decided to take a picture of it. Also: don't get a McWrap. Ever. They come in cardboard straitjackets. You have been warned.

In other news, today I got to Skype with Carolyn and besides us both looking smokin' hot in this picture, she is as wonderful as ever and newly rockin' some bangs. I love them and her and cannot believe that our next pie date is only a couple of weeks away!