A grand total of 73 people descended upon St. Gertrude’s July 12-14 for a weekend of good food, good friends, and good weather (even if the water main did break and the AC wasn’t working consistently and there was a small fiasco with Amazon over the arrival of the nametags – hey, it was an adventure) to meet other like-minded trads from the continental United States, Canada, Mexico, France, and Poland.

YAG Interviews with @stephenheiner

YAG Highlights Video

While some came on Thursday to help set up, the main fun began Friday night with Confessions, Mass, and a sermon from from Fr. McKenna, followed by a tour of SGG and dinner in Helfta Hall.

Then, just when nobody could eat any more dessert, we went outside for a bonfire and toasted S’mores! And they found room. Somewhere. Maybe way down in a corner.

Saturday morning found us all back at the church for Mass, brunch, and a talk on marriage and vocations by Bishop Dolan. (It’s been recorded, and will probably appear on here somewhere at some point….yes, yes, we know you wanted it like last week already. Patience!)

photos by @stephenheiner:

@stephenheiner

Then it was corn hole, volleyball, card games, trivia games, Frisbee-and-football-and-baseball-throwing, and lots of tans and sunburns (we had sunblock, but some people…) and general socializing pretty much all day…

…until it was time for the group picture, but you already saw that. Special thanks especially go to Mr. Shyam Suyambu, a parishioner who volunteered to be our official photographer! Also to Mr. Richard VandeRyt, who lent us his sound system.

Then we had dinner and it was off to the Rosary Procession. This may or may not be a record turnout; there were at least 100 heads to count.

After the Rosary we returned to Helfta Hall for the highly anticipated (or greatly to be dreaded, depending on your point of view) square dance! We had a little live music from the Simpson and Eldracher boys while we were waiting for laptops to be plugged into the system, but then we were off.

The Brothers Simpson, alternating with the Brothers Eldracher. Not like it was obvious or anything which ones were related…. Photo by @stephenheiner

First we learned the Texas Star with pretty good success, but then we went on to Bill Bailey and found the “right-and-left grand” a bit….complicated. So we went back to Texas Star for a bit, and then formed two double lines from one end of Helfta Hall to the other for the Virginia Reel!

A happy not-quite-YAG couple: Levi and Jacinta are getting married July 27 here at SGG.

When we were all hot and exhausted we stopped for ice cream and called it a night.

Sunday morning we had excellent attendance for the 9 am High Mass, then some light refreshments in Helfta Hall before Mr. Charlie Henry gave a much needed (and humorous) talk on finances.

Then it was off to the bowling alley for the final leg of the YAG weekend. Some scores were good, some scores were not so good, but everyone looked like they were having fun! Afterwards those who could stay wandered back to the church to finish off the leftover ice cream, and the YAG came to a very good close. Hope to see you all next year!

If you are desperate to see even MORE pictures from this year’s YAG, you can check out the following links:

Stephen Heiner’s Dropbox Folder:

Shyam Suyambu’s Square Dance Folders:

If you don’t see any pictures of yourself and would like some/more (hey, s’more!), email us through the contact page and the YAGermeister will see what else she can find.

Thanks for coming!