Over the past three years, I have always heard people talk about how great JPW was, but it definitely surpassed all of my expectations. It was so amazing to be able to meet everyone's parents and to show our parents what it is like to be a part of the ND Fam.
The weekend began on Friday with dinner at one of our favorite hang outs: Main Street Pub.
It was great to go to dinner with Casey's family, Erica, and our friend Dex's parents. My friend David, who I met on my trip to New Orleans was also able to come with us!
The food and Main Street Pub is great and it is always a fun and relaxing place to go. They were getting geared up for St. Patrick's Day, so they had a very entertaining array of shirts for sale ... of course, my roommate Casey had to get one! haha.
Next was the Opening Gala on Friday night. This was such a great experience! They had the gala in the Joyce Center (the basketball arena and the fieldhouse). The night was filled with good food (especially the desserts!), great friends, and dancing! The dress code was semi formal and everyone looked absolutely fabulous all dressed up!
Here we are with some of our guy friends ... we were all on the dance floor and mom wanted a picture of everyone! (Thanks for all the pictures mom!)
Claire, Brianna, Casey, and I were waiting for the other girls to come ... it is always so much fun to get all dressed up!
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I can't even begin to explain what an amazing experience Friday night was. It was so great to see everyone having such a great time with their parents. There was no awkwardness, no embarassment, but just everyone getting to know each other and experiencing life at ND.
On Saturday, we had a luncheon in our dorm, Lyons Hall. We had lunch in the chapel in the basement and ate Bruno's pizza! (My favorite) It was nice to just hang out.
On Saturday afternoon, we went to my absolute favorite bar ... THE BACKER!
The "Linebacker Inn" is a small bar right off campus, but I absolutely adore the atmosphere of the place. It was really fun to be able to take my parents there because I am pretty sure I was able to convert them to be backer lovers.
On Saturday night we all went to dinner at a restaurant downtown called the Vine. My friend Brianna organized the dinner and we had a room downstairs all to ourselves. We went to dinner with all of the girls, two of our guy friends from Fisher Hall, and all of our parents! Dinner was so delicious.
After dinner at the Vine, we headed to the College Football Hall of Fame, where one of our friends rented out the building for the night. It was all of our friends from the other dorms around campus. They had a DJ, dancing, desserts, and then had the entire Hall of Fame open for us to tour.
It was such a great night!
Finally, the weekend concluded on Sunday morning with brunch. Once again, the food was great and we got to sit with my friend Justine and her parents.
Lou Holtz was the guest speaker ... he never ceases to amaze me. He spoke about his love for Notre Dame, his experiences at Junior Parents Weekend, and just about life.
Of all the things he said, I had two favorites:
1. He started talking about what made Notre Dame so special ... he said:
I thought this was so amazing ... and so true. Even as I am trying to write about this weekend in this blog, I am having a very difficult time finding the words to describe the experience. My time at Notre Dame has been filled with so many magical moments and I can't even explain how fabulous it has been. As my dad put it, "great people at a great place." so true.
2: Lou Holtz said that there are 4 things that you need in life:
1. Something that makes you happy.
2. Something to get up for everyday.
3. Someone to Love.
4. Something to believe in.
Thanks for a great weekend mom and dad!
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