The Amazing Race

Alright, well I best start at the beginning on this one. Beth decided to plan an Amazing Race for all of her swim school instructors and helpers. We have a very busy summer with meets so yesterday was about the only day that was even a possibility. We didn't have much time to plan, but we went to work right away. Both she and I are huge fans for the show and took a lot of our ideas from there. If you don't watch the show, you are really missing out! Alright, so onto the race...

We had four teams. The Blue Team was Tanya, Grace, Taylor B, Erica, & Mareeka. The Green Team was Adam, Micah, Elise, & Willow. The Purple Team was Ashleigh, Evey, Kristi, Taylor E, & Emily. And the Silver Team was Alex (aka Francis), Andrew, Lilly, Nina, & Lindsey. Each team had a driver, but the drivers weren't really allowed to help. They were there to help us capture this exciting event on camera :)

The race started at the Rec. Center with a hula hoop task. Next up, Elton Hills. First was a Road Block. (A task only one team member can complete. We had five of them on the race so everyone had to do one.) There were four numbers
hidden on the playground. The kids had to find the numbers and use them to open a padlock. Apparently this task was a lot harder than we thought it would be. Once they finished that, the teams had to push a wheelbarrow, with one team member in it, for a prescribed distance.

After that, it was off to Jefferson. This is where Sarah and I were stationed. First all of the teams had to play some croquet. Okay, not real croquet. I had five wickets set up and different distances. I ended up having to move the wickets twice because it was way too hard and taking forever. Then was another Road Block. Each person had to pop ten balloons without using their hands or arms. Very smartly, they all used their feet and stomped on them. Inside the balloons were "surprises," like shaving cream, silly string, and sand. There was also a random fact in each one. Nine of the facts were true and one was false. They then took the fact they thought was false and ran it to Sarah. I clearly made the random facts to hard. I think two people went through all ten and one went through eight before they found the right one. I'm sorry guys!

Next up, Silver Lake Foods. First the teams had to beg money off of people to buy a bottle of pop. I think they all did this pretty fast because people were really nice. That is once the kids realized they should tell them they were doing the Amazing Race. The Road Block here was for one person to go into the store and find the prices for five items that Beth and I had picked. The items were A.1. Steak Sauce, Orange Sherbet, French Onion Dip, a loaf of bread, and a summer sausage. We had gone in earlier in the day and priced them. We gave the kids the size, brand, everything to find the right price. They then had to find the total and give it to Beth to get their next clue. I heard a rumor that some of them were having trouble with the addition process, but I don't know...

Then the headed to Silver Lake Park. The Road Block was to dig in the sand at a playground for a clue and next was the Detour. A Detour is a choice between two sets of tasks, each with their own pros and cons. This Detour was called Taste or Cent. In Taste, they had to each eat a tablespoon of caviar. In Cent, they had to count pennies. All four teams chose to eat the caviar. Gross! Next time we do this, we're picking something way worse than caviar. Possibly liver pate or pigs feet.

After that, the teams came to our house. They did their final Road Block first. We had six jars of baby food that they had to identify. I did provide them with a list of what they all were. They were bananas, beef and beef gravy, peaches, pears, squash, and sweet potatoes. Again, gross! Then they had to search my backyard for four packs of gum. Each pack of gum had an animal on it. When they found all four animals, they had to take the first letter of then animal name and spell a word. The animals were a frog, turtle, seal, and alligator. The word was fast.

Then came the final task... All the teams had to walk to Kellogg and got a pie made of whipped cream. We had hidden the names of six coaches and six little-known facts in the pies. The teams then had to match the coach with their fact. This took FOREVER! I guess we did a good job of finding obscure facts. Once they matched them all they ran to the finish line. The Purple Team won, then Blue, then Green, and then Silver.

It was a great race and we had so much fun! I think we're going to do another one in the fall, so let me know if you want to help with it :) We could not have done it without our parents, Matt, and Sarah helping us out. Hopefully they all had fun too. We finished up the night with pizza and DDR at our house. A few of us played a few rounds of Lynch Mob, too.

We have TONS of pictures that I'll post on Facebook when I get them all edited. This task is rather daunting, so it'll take me a little while.

Thanks for reading this novel about our Amazing Race :) Quickly before I go...

Boyfriend of the Day: Joe Mauer

He hit his first career grand slam today against the Tigers. Yay! It was uber exciting :) We won 11 to 1. Heck yes! It was a big day for Hubby #2... It was his first grand slam AND his first time being my boyfriend :)

We have back-to-back games on ESPN this week. Sunday and Monday night. I'm hoping we play some great baseball. Go Twins!