End of Summer Whirlwind

I can hardly believe that it is October already. It has still be an incredibly busy time for me, even more than I thought. WE have had a few weekend groups in and I have now gone to two weddings, one of which was tunred into a vacation because it was on Bald HEad Island, NC. It was the wedding of a dear intern friend and about half of our staff went down for the wedding. We rented a large house and the weather was great! HEre are a few pictures from that:

The group before the rehearsal dinner:

The ceremony site:

The group at the wedding ceremony:

My old boss and co-workers Evan and Marshall

Then the next weekend after that, my dear friend Kimmy was married. I don't have pictures of that yet, but hopefully soon. I am going away tomorrow to SharpTop Cove, a Young Life camp in Georgia for training.

Michael came to visit!

Well summer is about half way over and it has been crazy! Michael (my twin brother) came to visit after driving with me after I got a new car (pictures of that to follow!) and it was such an amazing time! Here are some pictures of his time here...

Wakeboarding...

On the boathouse dock

Parasailing!....

The Ropes Course!....

Hanging out with some staff and interns...

The gorgeous view from the beach to the lake...

Easter Weekend

I hope everyone had a good Easter holiday. I went to Lake Champion to spend a long weekend with the Hagenbuch's. It was great to see them and spend time with the girls who are just so much fun! It was nice to be away from the snow as well. We still have lots of snow since the temperatures have not started going above freezing yet. Its been hovering so some of the snow has begun to melt, starting our muddy season. With all this snow that has to melt, I cannot even imagine how much mud we are going to have! I will be turning another year older this week and I will be heading to NYC next weekend because an awesome friend of mine from LA is coming to the east coast and has free tickets for 2 broadway shows! Pictures will definitely be following that (36 hour) trip.


Here are some pictures of my time at Champion!

Aubrey likes to take pictures of everything

Kaylee in her Easter sweater

Aubrey haming it up in her shades and in my shoes!

Still snowing in March

Not a whole lot happening up here in Saranac Lake excpet that it is still snowing. It doesn't seem like it will ever stop. I have been fighting a nasty cold since Saturday, so I havent been sleeping well and just feel like crap all day. But, I just got promoted at work to the Administrative Manager and Bookkeeper. This is the job that I would have looked into getting in about 3-5 years. So when my dear friend and boss left, I interviewed and got the job this past week! It is a very exciting opportunity and I look forward to the new role. That also means that there are no more slower times in the office. From this week until the end of August my life will not slow down. I travel for a long weekend to Lake Champion for Easter and then will go to Rockbridge, a YL camp in Virginia the first week in April to help train the assignment teams that will be at camp all summer. So I guess there actually have been lots of things happening!

I went to San Francisco and this is what I saw...

The golden gate bridge from a tour we took


Getting ready to ride ona cable car

Eating the famous chocolate sundae at Ghirardelli

Outside a winery in Napa Valley

Me and my friend SJ went to San Francisco, Ca for a long weekend this past weekend. We stayed in Fisherman's Wharf, saw the golden gate bridge, alcatraz, rode cable cars, went to union square, chinatown, Napa Valley and Sonoma, golden gate park, lombard street. We had a blast! It didn't rain one drop. We met amazing people in the hostel we stayed at and just had a great vacation!

The Glory of a Small Town

Yesterday was the end of the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival. They have a slide show and then a fireworks show that they set off on the frozen lake. It was so fantastic. The main street was closed and lots of people went over to the castle. It was sooooo cold! It was probably around 5 degrees but so windy that it felt about 15 below. But needless to say it was still so much fun and just made me realize how much I love living in a small town. Now I am off to San Francisco on Thursday so I will have lots of pictures to share next week! Check out the pictures below from the carnival!

A picture of the castle

Me in front of the ice pyramid

The fireworks show over the castle

Winter Carnival Time!

Well the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival has begun. I have learned the fantastic pluses of moving to a small town. Every year they have a royal court where they have a court of eight couples from the local high school, a prince and princess from the local colleges and then a king and queen are announced on coronation night that I attended last night. It was amazing. If anyone has ever seen the show Gilmore Girls, it is very much like that. So fun. Check out http://www.saranaclakewintercarnival.com/ for other events that happen during this wonderful week of events. Next week I will put pictures of the ice castle.

Here are some pictures of my time in Florida and hanging out at game night with my friends here. San Francisco in less than 2 weeks!

This is me at Islands of Adventure. This sums up my time there!

My friends: Me, Rae (with Baxter), Mel

Chris, Marshall (with Major), Evan

Back from the Sunshine!

Well, I got back from Florida late Sunday night. I had one of the most fun and exhausting week in a long time! There were tons of people that I got to see and hang out with as well as lots of musical guests like Jars of Clay, The Cash Family, Ryan Long, and a few others. A few other treats included Jeff Foxworthy, who is a Wyldlife leader (!) and Jack Hannah who brought animals and was a part of program that made me laugh for about and hour and a half straight. It was in the 80's everyday and I got to go to Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios. All in all it was a fantastic trip that I hope I will get to go to in another 4 years! Here is a picture of the pool area of the hotel.


Now I am looking foward to a trip I am taking with one of my best friends to San Francisco. We are leaving on Valentine's Day and staying over that weekend. I am sooooo excited! I have never been to the west coast so I cannot wait! It will be hard to limit myself to what I get to do!

Crazy Times

Going to see Santa!


Kaylee and Aubrey on Christmas Morning!

Sorry it's been so long! I just got back from time at Lake Champion for Christmas and New Years and a few days in Baltimore. Christmas was lots of fun with the Hagenbuch's. Then it was a quick stop in Baltimore to see family and friends. My friends took me to see a sneak preview of 27 Dresses... such a cute movie! New Years was a riot. I headed back to Lake Champion with friends from Baltimore. WE played lots and lots of Guitar Hero and Rockband (which is my new favorite. It made me feel like and awesom drummer!) Then we celebrated the new year with setting a chair on fire and watching a new entertaining thing... a roman candle war. Hilarious. There are lots of things going on with my job and life here at camp that will be changing but for now I am off to Orlando on the 8th for the Young Life All Staff Conference, where I will be with about 5,000 YL staff from all over the country. We take over the Marriot... the entire thing! So I am really looking forward to that.


Hope all of your Christmas' and New Years were wonderful!