The Amazing Race

Mitch and I headed down to Idaho Falls for FHE yesterday. Apparently, Mitch's mother and her group of friends put on this "Amazing Race" competition every year the week after school starts and they invited Mitch and I to come and join in. I had never heard of the Amazing Race before - I guess it's a T.V. show? Not having cable has really put me behind the times. 

As Linda was prepping me for victory, she gave me examples of what they had done in previous years:

1. Ate scorpion lollipops

2. Pumped gasoline for people at a gas station

3. Ate even nastier food than scorpion lollipops

4. Physical challenges such as running around town, doing pushups, etc

5. Putting whip cream on one persons face and then having another person throw Cheetos at them in an attempt to land the Cheetos in the whip cream

Supposedly, the point of the game is to race all over town, receive tasks, perform those tasks, and then receive instructions for where you are to go next. Whoever finishes first and gets back to the gazebo in the park, wins. The family that wins that year gets to plan the race/tasks for next year. 

Now, don't get me wrong. I love kids. I love them to pieces. But do you know what I love more than strangers' families? Winning. And I was determined to win. I wanted to be able to plan the next Amazing Race on the farm. Can you imagine an obstacle course in a hay field?! FINDING A NEEDLE IN A HAY STACK?! I had no time to sit around and get to know people or their families. I also didn't have any time for slow pokes on my team. Linda's friends must have seriously thought I was crazy because I was doing some serious physical prep as Christina was explaining the rules/tasks to us.

The central theme to this years Amazing Race was service, which is really a wonderful idea, but I only had one thing on my mind; winning. The first slip of paper told us to drive to a park and meet someone in a baseball diamond. Mitch was seriously hauling to the park. I would have been afraid for my life if I wasn't worried about crushing all of the other families into the ground. If there had been a cop patrolling the area of the race, the Holts would have been pulled over more than once.

When we got to the baseball diamond, we were given an entire box of pizza. The task was that the family had to eat the entire pizza as fast as they could before they were able to move on. There is nothing nastier than eating a Little Ceasars pizza in under 2 minutes. Especially when you picked up McDonalds on the way there for fear that there would be no food provided. Take my word for it. 

After we finished the pizza, we were given instructions to go to a house, however, our team accidentally thought the task was talking about a park that has the same name as the street the house is on. This is where we got set back. We traveled halfway to the park when we realized that it was a home address and had to turn around. We were detrimentally set back and totally thought that we had lost the race. 

By sheer dumb luck, we pulled up to the house and there was still a family there. The task was for two people to fill an entire box with apples picked from the tree in the front yard. I didn't even hesitate. I viciously ran up the ladder and started throwing picked apples down as if I were throwing grenades. I filled up an entire box in under 20 seconds. Somehow we had beat the family that was already there way before us.

If you ever need someone to pick some apples, you now know who to call. 

The next task had us drive to another person's home. By this time we were already so behind that we got there right as the last family was leaving. We were disqualified from the race and were told to go to the gazebo at the park. The other tasks were: to plant flowers in someone's yard, to wash an apartment complexes windows, and to pay for and wash someone's car at the local car wash.

I was so frustrated that we had lost! If we hadn't read the address wrong, we could have had a chance. At least we didn't finish dead last, but I seriously think we should have won with my apple-picking-skills.

Terri's family won and they relinquished the power of planning the next race to the Holt family! I've already been preparing. As Mitch and I drove home I passed a few of my ideas on to him:

1. Moving a hay bale from point A to point B only using 2 people

2. Hiding Easter eggs and the youngest member of each family has to find 5 eggs on their own

3. Racing from the farm to the nearby school on foot as an entire family

4. Something with mud. Lots and lots of mud

5. Filling buckets with water in some difficult way

I would absolutely recommend this as an FHE activity! It was a blast! Even the teenagers in the group were excited about it. I'm totally planning one at the church for Mitch and I's group of friends. It is so high-paced and yet you can really do good things with it. Everyone loves to win- so much that they would willingly eat nasty food or clean someone's car.

- Alex