"That was the moment that Lucy told me her retainer fell out somewhere in the obstacle course." WL Lock In

Wyldest Night Ever-- the 2018 HSE Wyld Life Lock In at the Barn. 102 kids. 15 HS leaders. 6 adults. 5 hours of organized chaos. 

This is a team of some of the most incredible people you'll ever meet. Caitlin Tyner captured the whole night in photographs. Many of her photos are in this post. Cassidy Ogan created a video of the whole night that captures all of the enthusiasm and whimsy-- she's so talented.

Our adults leaders handle so many thing through out the night from collecting waivers to checking on kids to running Club to running food set-up to overseeing the inflatables.

The HS leaders are the camp counselors of the night with their own crew of kids that they dress up, encourage, cheer for and lead in small groups. They make their kids feel like the rock stars that they are.

As kids started to arrive the Barn became a dance party... and didn't stop for the next 5 hours. 

Kids immediately got connected to their leader and got dressed up in a costume.

I loved getting to hang out with so many girls from FCJH who showed up tonight-- nearly 60 of them! They make me love going to school every single day and so happy that I get to lead Wyld Life in HSE.

One of my favorite parts of the night was watching kids and leaders connect. They've been building friendships since they started in 7th grade and these relationships are some of their favorites. 

Some leaders already knew every kid in their group, but we also had a whole slew of kids coming for the very first time. This was a whole deep dive into the fun of WL that they couldn't even try to resist.

Soon enough, it was time to start things off with our first Club of the night.

Two kids from each of our 15 groups came up to compete in the Clothespin Challenge. 

A kid from each group came up for the hysterical, slimey, jaw-dropping Egg Drop game.

The goal: catch all 4 egg yolks in your team's cup. 

It was arguably even more fun to watch than it was to participate. 

Did I mention we had a small army of Junior High guys in attendance?

Cassidy taught us to play Skittle Skattle Battle-- she's the 4-time Springhill Skittle Skattle Champion. 

Lauren Nix delivered the Club Talk tonight about the storms in our lives and how God is always present as our rock.

HS leaders led a conversation afterwards with the scripture that Lauren had used and questions for everyone to discuss. We always want to create space and opportunities to talk about the things that really matter.

How do you have even more fun? You eat. 

Chik Fil A nuggets. 20 kids of chips. Chocolate chip cookies. Buffet of skittles. The feast of every kid's dreams. 

One of the many benefits of holding events in a space like the Barn is that we have room to bring in a gigantic inflatable Obstacle Course and Human Jousting.

Sidenote: I'm so glad that Molly Kelly came tonight and that WL gets to benefit from the goodness of the entire Myers family.

A whole hour and a half of hanging out-- we were living our best lives with all of our best friends.

Cass, Maddie, Meric and Wash have been four of the main characters of my life. All of our HS leaders are matched up with an adult leader who mentors them all year long. Getting to lead these incredibly wise, talented, ambitious, silly, confident, kind, passionate and loving young women is my favorite thing. I love that we get to do this together.

Did I mention that this was the best Wyld Life Night of our whole year?

And that dance party that started 3 hours ago continued to rock with all of the dance moves and then some. 

We broke back up into our groups for Campaigners and our first surprise of the night-- BOOKS FOR EVERYONE! 7th graders got their own Bible and 8th graders got the Jesus Calling devotion-- we want to equip these kids to keep seeking after Christ on their own.

Surprise number two-- DILLY BARS FOR EVERYONE!

Our last hour of the night was Club number 2. We started with an Ultimate Leader Challenge...

Meric beat out the other 14 HS leaders to claim victory. We played a 120 person game of Cups! Each group struggled to unthaw and put on a frozen t-shirt.

And you can bet we finished the night with smiles on our faces. As everyone exited the Barn they got the final surprise of the night-- WYLD LIFE SHIRTS FOR EVERYONE!

Thankful for the Wyldest Night Ever and all the party people we got to share it with. This family is the best.