Travel – A Pocketful of Faith

Isle of Palms Spring Break Travel Diary 2018

I spent Tuesday through Friday of last week staying in an adorable little house at Wild Dunes in Isle of Palms, South Carolina with my family for spring break. We had an awesome time and today I’m so excited to share the details of our trip with y’all! I’m sharing a ton of pictures as well as a video, which I recommend you watch in HD by clicking the HD button in the bottom right corner of the video. I also linked most of the locations, restaurants, and shops mentioned so you can check them out for yourself if you’re planning trip to Isle of Palms. Enjoy!

This video was created using iMovie. All the clips were taken with a Canon EOS Rebel T6 and a Sigma 30mm F1.4 DC HSM lens. The background song is “The Other (DallasK Remix)” by Lauv.

Tuesday

We left for Isle of Palms after lunch around 12:00 p.m. on Tuesday. We spent our three and a half hour car ride watching movies, eating goldfish, and doing those fun spring break homework assignments (well actually that was just me and that “fun” comment was definitely sarcastic) before arriving at our house in Isle of Palms’ Wild Dunes resort area around 3:30 p.m. When we got to the house we spent half an hour or so picking rooms and settling in then my father, sister, brother, and I went on a short walk to the beach! It was so nice to have a house within walking distance from the beach and after this initial walk my sister and I felt comfortable enough to walk to the beach on our own. When we got back to the house around 5:00 p.m. and my stepmom made pasta for dinner, which we ate around 6:00 p.m. After dinner my sister and I went on another walk to the beach. We took a few photos, shared many laughs, and watched the sunset before coming back to the house, showering, and going to bed.

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Wednesday

My sister and I woke up around 8:30 a.m. and had crescent rolls with Nutella for breakfast before heading to the beach at 10:00 a.m. While it was sunny, the weather was not in our favor as winds and cooler temperatures pushed us away from the water. We walked back to our house around noon, where we had turkey and cheese sandwiches for lunch. My brother, sister, and father have been watching The Flash on Netflix together, so while they binge watched for a few hours I worked on my AP U.S. History homework and my stepmother read her books. Around 4:30 p.m. we began getting ready for dinner out. We went to The Refuge around 6:00 p.m. and it was amazing! I ordered the Amelia sandwich, which was turkey, tomato (which I asked to have taken off), avocado, bacon, mozzarella, and pesto (which I also asked to have excluded) on sourdough bread. For dessert my sister and I split a peanut butter and chocolate pie. After dinner we returned to the house and got ready for bed.

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Thursday

Thursday morning I slept in until around 10:00 a.m. while my family went on a walk. After waking up as they were leaving, I ate a couple cinnamon rolls for breakfast and read the Bible on the deck. When my family returned from their walk around 11:00 a.m., we drove to Acme Low Country Kitchen for brunch. I had the island toast and it was so good. After brunch we came back to the house for a couple hours before heading to Wild Dunes’ pool area overlooking the beach. While at the pool, I tanned and worked on more AP U.S. History homework before playing lacrosse with my little brother. My sister and I also spent a little time on the beach. We returned to the house around 3:00 p.m., then my sister and I went on a walk to a gift shop on the resort property to buy tee shirts. After our little trip to the gift shop, we got ready for dinner. We ate at the Morgan Creek Grill on the marina, where I had fish and chips then a chocolate cake for dessert. We returned to the house after dinner, began packing, and went to bed.

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Friday

I woke up around 9:00 a.m., and after having a couple crescent rolls for breakfast I finished packing. We did one final sweep of the house and loaded the car to begin the journey home around 11:00 a.m.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed hearing about our trip! Be sure to follow me on Instagram @apocketfuloffaith and follow my travel hashtag #farawaywithfaith so you don’t miss any of my upcoming travels. If you’re interested in reading any of my other travel diaries, you can check them out here!

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Carolina Point WyldLife Weekend Travel Diary 2018

The weekend of February 23rd through 25th I had the privilege of traveling to YoungLife’s Brevard, NC camp, Carolina Point, with my area’s WyldLife group as a leader. This was my first time going to camp as a leader and it was so neat to see the other side of things! I loved getting to know all the sweet girls in my cabin better and watching them grow in their relationships with God as the weekend progressed. Today I’m sharing the weekend’s happenings as well as a video in a travel diary! I recommend you watch the video in HD by clicking the HD button in the bottom right corner of the video. Enjoy!

This video was created using iMovie. All the clips were taken with a Canon EOS Rebel T6 and a Sigma 30mm F1.4 DC HSM lens. The background song is “Feel Good” by Felix Jaehn and Mike Williams.

Friday

Friday night we arrived around 9:45 p.m. and shortly after dropping my bags in one of the eighth girls’ cabins I ran with my area’s leaders to the leader lounge for a meeting. In this meeting we were introduced to all of the weekend’s authoritative roles, including the speaker, camp director, program staff (aka the hilarious people who put on skits and organize the games for club), property staff, and more. In this meeting we also discussed the schedule for the night and Saturday morning. After a series of introductions and prayers for the exciting weekend ahead, we were dismissed and joined our middle school friends in front of the club room to anticipate club’s start. About fifteen minutes later, music began to play and the club doors open. During club we screamed and danced to a few songs, played games, and heard the talk. The opening club’s talk focused on the things we pursue instead of focusing on God and the idea that maybe we were meant to pursue the one who created these things. Following club was the opening cabin time, which was honestly a bit awkward for my cabin (as the first night’s cabin time often is). Cabin time ended around midnight, so we prepared for bed pretty quickly and went to sleep soon after.

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Saturday

I woke up around 7:30 a.m. and quietly got ready for the day (my cabin was still sleeping!) before heading to my leader meeting at 8:00 a.m. In this meeting we picked kids for the games that would take place in club and discussed the planned happenings for the day up to dinner. When the meeting ended, we went to the dining hall to claim our area’s tables at our first meal at camp. I have to admit, standing on chairs and dancing to get kids to my table at each meal was one of my favorite parts of the weekend. If you’ve ever been to YoungLife camp you know that as soon as the dining hall doors open every camper sprints to their leader’s table as though the table was going to stand up and run away. It was so fun to see that excitement from a different perspective! We ate some delicious pancakes and the best sausage (anyone else not like sausage unless it’s at YoungLife camp?) while watching the hilarious skit. After breakfast it was time for the cabin challenge! Our cabin did an array of activities, including leapfrogging around the pool, push-ups, dancing to YMCA on the dock, and trust falls from the stage to compete for the coveted cabin challenge winning title.

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When the challenge ended, we went to the club room to wait for the morning club. I distinctly remember the song selection Saturday morning being so good, including mashups of cartoon theme songs (the Phineas and Ferb theme is such a jam, don’t lie) and the “Banana Song.” This club talk was one that’s always hardest to hear, the reminder that we are sinners and that there is nothing we can do to redeem ourselves. In my now five trips to YoungLife camp, I’ve seen kids of all ages struggle with accepting this fact that without Christ’s crucifixion (which isn’t discussed until the Saturday night club at weekend camp) we are helpless. That being said, the cabin time following this club proved frustrating for some of our girls (expected), but also brought up a lot about where they see Sin in their own lives. At the conclusion of cabin time, we had about half an hour of free time before lunch. Lunch was super good as usual (although I forgot what we ate, oops) and the skit led into field games! Field games included a few fun games I don’t know how to name, a huge tug of war, and flour bombs (which I luckily dodged thanks to having my camera in hand).

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The end of field games marked the beginning of free time, so I quickly rushed to the cabin with a few of my eighth grade girls to grab our wallets before heading to the camp store. Somehow I managed to buy just one tee shirt and a sticker this trip (that’s a huge accomplishment for a tee shirt lover like me!), but the line was super long so the camp store easily ate up an hour of our free time. After taking our purchases back to the cabin, we went on the hike with a couple of our area’s head leaders. The hike was a lot of work but the view was so worth it. Atop the mountain, we took a few minutes in silence to just talk to God and marvel in the fact that despite His creation of the gorgeous peaks in front of us, He still sees us as His most beautiful creation. We took a few photos before heading back down the mountain.

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When we got back to camp, I took a quick shower then hung out with a few girls for half an hour or so before dinner. We had the best lasagna, green beans, and bread for dinner while watching the climax of the skit. For dessert we had big cookie, but this weekend they prepared a “s’mores big cookie!” The famously sweet dish included graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate syrup in addition to the traditional giant, gooey cookie. After dinner I returned to the leader lounge for another meeting in which we discussed the plans for the night and worshipped as a large group. When the meeting concluded, I reunited with my area’s girls in front of the club room. Club was again filled with a ton of fun games, funny skits, and a great talk about the crucifixion of Jesus. At the end of the club talk, the campers were given an opportunity to silently find a seat around camp and write a letter to God for fifteen minutes. If you’ve ever been to YoungLife camp, we do something similar (fifteen minutes of silence to talk to God with all of camp’s lights out), but having never gone to camp as a Wyldlife kid it was really neat for me to experience this different take on the fifteen minutes. When the fifteen minutes ended, the bell rang and we went to cabin time. My head leader asked me to lead this cabin time, and this particular cabin time after the crucifixion talk and fifteen minutes is always my favorite as a camper so I was so nervous to lead it. We spent cabin time asking and answering questions about beginning a relationship with Jesus based on the club talk and discussing what the campers though and wrote about during their fifteen minutes. The five-minutes-to-club bell signaled the end of cabin time and I ran down to the club room with my eighth grade girls. This particular club included a few “minute to win it” games, the conclusion of the skit series, and a super fun dance party filled with glow sticks and lots of whipping and jujuing. When the dance party was over I headed over to the Mason Jar (snack bar) with my best friend and co-leader Cammie to purchase some Cheerwine slushies and ice cream. After we finished our snacks we returned to our cabins and went to bed.

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Sunday

Sunday morning my head leader, Townsend, woke me around 8:00 a.m. up with a stack of area tee shirts for my cabin. I passed out the tee shirts as the girls slowly got up in preparation for 9:00 a.m. breakfast (on the last day of YoungLife camp everyone wears their area shirts!). Breakfast consisted of lots of cereal, biscuits, and good conversations. After breakfast we returned to the cabin for cabin cleanup, in which we finished packing, took out the trash, folded all the blankets, and swept. As soon as we finished cleaning we went outside to take lots of pictures before our area meeting! I have to say, we got quite a few adorable shots, I wish I was that cute in middle school! Our photoshoots ended when it was time for lunch, a delicious platter of chicken sandwiches and French fries. We watched the meal skit’s conclusion as we finished dinner then packed the bus and headed home.

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I’m so grateful I had this amazing opportunity to lead some of the sweetest middle schoolers around! If you have the chance to attend or lead at a YoungLife camp, trust me, you should go! You can read about a few of my other YoungLife camp experiences here, here, and here. Thanks for reading!

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Charleston Girls Weekend Travel Diary

I spent January 20th and 21st in Charleston, South Carolina with a couple of my best friends, Evan and Cammie, and Cammie’s mother to celebrate Cammie’s birthday a few weeks ago and today I’m so excited to finally be sharing a travel diary with y’all! I was hoping to have this post up a couple weeks ago but the start of lacrosse season and extensive homework assignments have limited my time to focus on the blog recently. Better late than never, right? We had the best weekend in Charleston and today I’m sharing everything we did, as well as a short video, with y’all! I recommend you watch the video in HD by clicking the HD button in the bottom right corner of the video. I also linked most of the locations, restaurants, and shops mentioned so you can check them out for yourself if you’re planning trip to Charleston. I particularly loved the outfits I wore this trip, so I linked each of my looks under the pictures I wear each outfit in! Enjoy!

This video was created using iMovie. All the clips were taken with a Canon EOS Rebel T6 and a Sigma 30mm F1.4 DC HSM lens. The background song is “Through and Through” by Khai Dreams.

Saturday

Saturday morning Cammie and her mother picked me up around 8:00 a.m., and from there we drove to Evan’s house to pick her up as well. The drive to Charleston was filled with funny stories, gummy bears, and stops for Chick-fil-A and Starbucks. When we arrived close to noon, we immediately parked and began shopping on Charleston’s famous King Street. We shopped at Madewell, J.Crew, and a few boutiques before stopping for lunch at Monza around 2:00 p.m. for some delicious pasta and pizza. After finishing up at lunch, we walked to the DryBar for our blowout appointments. This was such a treat for all of us, Evan had a blowout once or twice but this was Cammie and I’s first time! The three of us have watched Danielle Carolan rave about DryBar in her vlogs for the past two years and we were so excited to finally have the chance to go ourselves. Cammie and I both got the Cosmo and Evan got the Mai Tai. With our new blowout styles, we walked to Urban Outfitters, H&M, Sephora, The Skinny Dip (we took way too many photos in front of their flower wall and on their patio, see them below!), and Francesca’s to complete our day of shopping. Around 5:00 p.m. we went to our hotel, the Charleston Marriott, to settle into our room and get ready for dinner. We celebrated Cammie’s birthday eating dinner at one of Cammie’s favorite seafood restaurants on the water in Mount Pleasant around 7:00 p.m., R.B.’s. There, Evan and I shared a fried shrimp platter and shared sides of fries and macaroni and cheese. The three of us shared an amazing slice of chocolate cake for dessert then took photos on the restaurant’s dock before heading back to the hotel. Upon returning to the hotel room, Evan and I took showers then the three of us headed downstairs with some snacks for some girl talk in the lobby’s lounge area until around midnight. When we came back to the hotel room we found HGTV on the television and quickly fell asleep to the home improvement shows (anyone else always do this in hotels? I don’t know why but I always find myself falling asleep to HGTV in hotel rooms).

top (on sale at Urban Outfitters for under $20!) // jacket (similar) // jeans // sneakers (updated version of mine) // bralette // initial necklace // pendant necklace // earrings // white and gold beaded bracelets (here and here) // MantraBand // cross bracelet // rose gold ring // gold stacked rings

sweater // skirt (super comfy and under $16 right now!) // over the knee boots (similar) // initial necklace // pendant necklace // earrings // winking eyes cuff bracelet // watch (similar) // rose gold ring // gold stacked rings

Sunday

Cammie woke Evan and I up after she finished showering around 9:00 a.m. We all got ready by 10:00 a.m. then went downstairs to the hotel’s dining area for breakfast where we had the most delicious waffles! After breakfast we packed the car and went to a nearby dock to take a few photos in front of the water. The pictures turned out adorable and the water was gorgeous. Next, we returned to King Street for another round of shopping in which we hit Forever 21, LOFT, Gap, and Banana Republic before returning to the car around 2:00 p.m. and beginning the drive home. A little while into the drive, around 3:00 p.m., we stopped at Smashburger for a late lunch. Cammie and I recognized the sign from the road and immediately knew we wanted to eat there because we tried Smashburger after landing in Denver on the way to Frontier Ranch (read my blog post about Frontier Ranch here) and remembered them having the best customizable burgers and absolutely delicious shakes! After lunch we got back in the car and finished the drive home.

turtleneck // vest (under $35 right now!) // jeans // sneakers (updated version of mine) // sunglasses // earrings // watch (similar) // white and gold beaded bracelets (here and here) // MantraBand // cross bracelet // rose gold ring // gold stacked rings

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed hearing about our trip! Be sure to follow me on Instagram @apocketfuloffaith and follow my travel hashtag #farawaywithfaith to see all my future travels in real time. If you’re interested in reading any of my other travel diaries (Atlantis Bahamas, Universal Studios Orlando, and a couple weeks in Texas to name a few!), check them out here!

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Montreat Street Style

A few weeks ago my family took a weekend trip to the small, picturesque town of Montreat in North Carolina. We had an amazing time (find my “Montreat, NC Travel Diary” post here) and I spent Friday in this cute little ensemble that just screams “fall in the mountains” to me. Today I’m sharing that look and I hope you love it as much as I do! Enjoy!

Montreat and its close neighbor, Black Mountain (which we also spent a good portion of our days/meals in), are cuddled up in the middle of North Carolina’s gorgeous Appalachian Mountains. Just like those stereotypical “mountain people” you might have in mind, practically everyone we saw there was wearing a flannel in one way or another, so I decided I’d try my hand at styling my flannel too. My navy and white flannel is from J.Crew, and I began the day layering it over a comfy maroon peplum top, but as the temperature rose it ended up tied around my waist (which I have to admit I liked a lot more than I thought I would!). I recently picked up these fun ripped olive green jeans at Old Navy and I’m obsessed with them (so much so that I actually wore them both days on the trip oops). I’ve never really had ripped jeans before and I’d been longing for a pair of olive green pants so this pair was the perfect way solution to both desires. As for shoes, I opted for my Birkenstock sandals because they fit the weather pretty well and were comfortable for a day filled with walking. I kept my jewelry pretty simple to match the relaxed look of the outfit, but I’m obsessed with this simple gold disc choker I’m wearing from KyzBeadz on Etsy. It’s so simple and versatile and I know I’ll be getting a ton of use out of it, it’s just so easy to clasp on and dress up an outfit!

top (similar) // flannel (updated version of mine) // green ripped jeans // sandals // choker // hoop earrings // beaded bracelets (here and here) // MantraBand // cross bracelet (similar) // watch (similar) // rose gold ring // gold stacked rings

Thanks for reading!

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The choker from KyzBeadz as well as the beaded bracelets from Sashka Co. featured in this post were sent to me in exchange for a feature in my blog. However, all opinions are honest and my own. I don’t feature products I don’t truly love!

Montreat, NC Travel Diary

October 20th was a teacher workday for our school district, so my family decided to take a two-ish hour drive to the small mountain town of Montreat, NC for the weekend. We visited the quaint town a few times when we still lived in North Carolina, but it’s been a pretty long time and we were so excited to be back! We had a great time in the mountains and today I’m sharing everything we did, as well as a short video, with y’all! I recommend you watch the video in HD by clicking the HD button in the bottom right corner of the video. I also linked some of the locations mentioned so you can check them out for yourself if you’re planning trip to Montreat. Enjoy!

This video was created using iMovie. All the clips were taken with a Canon EOS Rebel T6 and a Sigma 30mm F1.4 DC HSM lens. The background song is “Mess is Mine” by Vance Joy.

Thursday

We left for Montreat around 5:00 p.m. Thursday evening, and after a two-ish hour drive we arrived. We stayed in a cabin, so we stopped at a grocery store before settling into the cabin. For dinner, we picked up a pepperoni pizza at My Father’s Pizza and it was delicious! We went to bed around 10:00 p.m. after showering, unpacking a few things, and watching a little television. I shared a room with my younger sister, which was super fun.

Friday

Friday morning I slept in until around 10:00 a.m. I woke up to cinnamon rolls for breakfast before going on a short family walk to a nearby park. The walk over to the park was so pretty, with orange maple leaves covering the ground. When we returned from the park, we quickly changed then headed into a nearby town, Black Mountain. While in Black Mountain, we ate at a little Mexican restaurant called Ole’s Guacamoles. I just had a simple chicken and rice dish, but it was really good! After lunch, we walked to the cutest little cupcake shop, Hey Hey Cupcake. I chose the Mount Mitchell Mound, their quadruple chocolate cupcake, and it was amazing. Once we finished our cupcakes, we walked around the shops in downtown Black Mountain for a couple hours before heading back to Montreat. We spent a few minutes in the Montreat gift shop picking out tee shirts then spent a few minutes by Lake Susan (I shot an outfit post there, be on the lookout for it sometime soon!) before returning to the cabin. After a couple hours of rest (I spent this “rest” time doing AP U.S. History homework), we went out to dinner at FRESH Wood Fired Pizza and Pasta. My sister and I both had the marinara pasta and it was absolutely delicious but neither of us finished it because the portion was so generous. When we finished dinner, we returned to the cabin to get ready for bed and watch a movie as a family.

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Saturday

Saturday morning I slept in again until around 9:00 a.m. I had cereal for breakfast then worked on more homework before going to Lake Susan and riding in a paddleboat with my siblings. The paddleboat was so fun and Lake Susan is such a beauty! We went back into Black Mountain for lunch at The Trailhead around noon. I had the Cumberland Knob sandwich with a side of macaroni and cheese and it was all delicious! After lunch, we walked to the Dripulator Coffeehouse nearby. There I ordered a vanilla frappuccino and it was like the best vanilla bean frappuccino I’d ever had at Starbucks except better. We returned to the cabin in Montreat then ordered takeout from Thai Basil for dinner. After dinner I packed my bag and went to bed because we left early Sunday morning so I could make confirmation at church!

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Thanks for reading! Be sure to follow me on Instagram @apocketfuloffaith and check out my travel hashtag #farawaywithfaith to see all my future travels in real time.

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Windy Gap Travel Diary 2017

I spent the weekend of September 22-24 at Windy Gap, a YoungLife camp in Weaverville, NC. I love few things more than going to YoungLife camp and this year’s fall weekend definitely didn’t disappoint. Today I’m sharing a little travel diary from one of my favorite weekends of the year! I’m so excited to share this with you, I skipped writing a Windy Gap travel diary last year (I wrote a travel diary about Windy Gap in 2015 that you can read here!) but I seriously love talking about time spent at YoungLife camp. I’m recapping each day with lengthy descriptions and photos plus I actually made a video this year! I recommend you watch the video in HD by clicking the HD button in the bottom right corner of the video. Enjoy!

This video was created using iMovie. All of the clips were taken with a Canon EOS Rebel T6 and either an EF-S 18-55mm lens or a Sigma 30mm F1.4 DC HSM lens. The background song is “The World Is Ours” by Jai Wolf.

Friday

The bus left around 9:45 p.m., just after halftime of our high school’s homecoming football game. The bus ride was approximately an hour and a half of screaming the words to throwback songs and talking under blankets. We got to camp around 11:45 p.m., just in time for the first club! We sprinted to the club room as soon as we dropped our bags in the cabins. Even in the rush, I love getting off the bus in the dark at Windy Gap and I couldn’t help but notice the gorgeous navy sky of stars behind the silhouettes of the tall trees.

We came into club a little late but came just in time to watch a hilarious skit, sing a couple songs, and send some kids from our area up to the stage to participate in a few games. The first night’s talk was about how we can’t fix the mess our sin has created and the speaker was amazing all weekend long. After club, we went back to the cabin for cabin time.

During cabin time, we talked about the talk and what we learned/found interesting. I love cabin time, it’s always one of my favorite things about YoungLife camp. Cabin time gives you a chance to verbally process what you’re learning about Jesus, yourself, and your relationship with Him while getting to know your friends better. Once cabin time concluded we all got ready for bed and went to sleep.

Saturday

Knowing that breakfast was around 9:00 a.m., I woke up at 8:00 a.m. and quickly got ready for the day. Once I was prepared for one of my favorite days of the fall, I took my friend Emma, who was experiencing Windy Gap for the first time, on a little walk around camp. I showed her the gorgeous willow tree (literally my favorite tree on this planet), the Sippin’ Parlor where you can find the best birthday cake milkshakes ever, club room entrances, the dining hall, the camp store, and how to get to the zip-line and swing. After we finished this little tour, we returned to the cabin to walk down to the dining hall with the rest of our friends and leaders to wait for breakfast. While anticipating breakfast, we took a few pictures.

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For breakfast we had delicious pancakes and some really good sausage (I don’t even really like sausage but I love YoungLife camp sausage, I swear it’s way better). Towards the end of breakfast, a continuation of the skit that we saw Friday night introduced the cabin challenge. The cabin challenge is a list of activities each cabin completes in an approximately ten minute time period for points in competition with the other cabins. These activities included rolling down the hill, sliding into the lake fully clothed, making a basket from mid-court, and doing ten pushups. We didn’t win, but the cabin challenge is always super fun, we’ve done it every year I’ve gone to YoungLife camp!

After the cabin challenge we had about twenty minutes of free time before club. Club was pretty much the same as the night before; more skits, more games, and more songs. The talk was great again, talking about the separation from God that our sin has created. The end of club led into cabin time, where we returned to the cabin and again discussed what we heard. Cabin time ended with the five minute bell, meaning we had five minutes until lunch.

Lunch included pepperoni and cheese pizza. The skit continued at the end of the meal and led us into our free time. Free time was spent packing everything Windy Gap has to offer into a six hour time period. As soon as lunch was released, I sprinted to the back door of the dining hall with a few of my friends and from there we ran up to the swing. I love the swing, it puts any other swing imaginable to complete shame. Once my friend Came and I got off the swing, we changed into bathing suits and zip-lined into the lake. After the zip-line we went back to the cabin to shower before going to the camp store where I bought a tee and YoungLife blanket (if you don’t have a YoungLife blanket you need to buy one next time you go to camp, they’re made out of the softest sweatshirt material and are very possibly the best thirty dollars you’ll ever spend). Next we hit the Sippin’ Parlor, where I ordered my annual birthday cake milkshake and it was just as delicious as always. We enjoyed our milkshakes under the gorgeous oak tree and then took a few pictures on the adorable little island.

A couple hours after our little photoshoot, the five minute bell rang and we all ran to the dining hall again. While we waited a little longer than five minutes we took even more pictures with some of our leaders. I switched camera lenses in our final minutes of free time before dinner and I just love how these pictures came out!

I honestly forgot what we even had for dinner because the memory was overshadowed by the fact that we had the big cookie for dessert. If you’ve never been to a YoungLife camp this might sound foreign to you, but big cookie is a huge cookie served in a circular pan fresh out of the oven with a ton of vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup on top. It’s so good that no one stops to divide it evenly, everyone just digs in with a spoon. It’s so much fun and it’s so good. Once we finished eating the big cookie we met up with our area by the basketball court to get our area tee shirts that we’d be wearing the next day (you’ll see we’re all wearing matching navy tee shirts in the pictures from Sunday and that’s why!) before having a little free time before club.

The final evening club of YoungLife camp is always my favorite, whether it’s fall weekend or a week at summer camp. This particular club is used to describe Christ’s death on the cross in immense depth, the kind of depth that makes you wince. Once the crucifixion is explained, campers are gifted with a fifteen minute period of silence and darkness in camp. You get to pick a spot, then you just sit and stare at the stars and talk to God. I love this, I always have. At this point I’m always reminded of my amazement that the same God that made those stars made me, and even though He blessed me with all of this I still sin and turn my back to Him, yet He still wants me.

Once the fifteen minutes were up, a bell rang and the camp turned the lights back on. We all walked back to our cabin for the most personal and emotional of the cabin times. This year’s wasn’t nearly as tear-jerking as some of my past years’ cabin times have been, but it was equally as eye-opening. When cabin time concluded, we were led back to the club room where some of the leaders from various counties present that weekend were putting on skits.

These were some of the absolute funniest things I have ever seen, my stomach hurt from laughing so much. At the end of the skits, we had a big camp dance party and were then told that Tim Halperin, our camp musician for the weekend, would be having a little concert in the club room about an hour later. Tim Halperin was so good (he was actually on American Idol at one point, be sure to check him out on iTunes!), I especially love his song “Hey 17.” His concert ended the night, so when it was over we walked back to our cabins and got ready for bed.

Sunday

I woke up at 7:00 a.m. to go on a little walk with one of my YoungLife leaders, Adrian, before her morning leader meeting. We ended up sitting in rocking chairs in front of the Sippin’ Parlor and reading the Bible. It was so nice to have some one on one time with Adrian and to just open up the word! Around 7:45 a.m., Adrian had to go to her meeting so I walked back to the cabin and began to change into my area tee shirt and actually get ready for the day.

Around 8:30 a.m. our cabin walked down to the dining hall to get some coffee and wait for breakfast. Our delicious breakfast included biscuits, eggs, grits, and bacon. When breakfast was over, we went to the club room for “say so’s.” Say so’s are a little period of time in the club room with some music playing in which campers who have accepted/recommitted to Christ can stand up and say so. I love getting to clap for and congratulate my friends and all the other campers who are making such a big step!

Once say so’s finished, we went back to the cabin to clean up and pack. When we finished cleaning and packing we took all of our bags to the bus then returned to the basketball court to hang out with the rest of the people from our area. We then went to the leader lounge for an area meeting before taking a group picture of everyone from our area in front of the camp store. Shortly after, the five minute bell rang for lunch.

For lunch we had sandwiches and some really good chocolate chip cookies. The skit concluded on stage as we ate and once we finished eating we walked up to the buses to leave. It was such an awesome weekend and I was so sad to see it end!

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If you ever get the chance to go to YoungLife camp you need to go! You can read about a couple of my other YoungLife camp experiences here and here. Thanks for reading!

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