A Truly Amazing Date- 2012

So last year we went to this awesome event while living in CA called the Amazing Date. We had never met the host- but they sent a facebook post saying invite any fun couples so we got invited and I'm so glad we did! She was amazing and had done an excellent job at organizing the whole thing. Thank you Tiffany Stock for the idea and for inspiring us! Although Michael was a little hesitant when he heard about it- by the end of the night we were both having a blast and decided we would have to start throwing our own Amazing Dates wherever we ended up.

Well, we have been here officially a year next month and we decided it was time! So we invited pretty much everyone we know here and invited them to invite friends if they wanted. We had 18 couples RSVP (so 9 teams and 36 guests) plus 8 volunteer couples. It took a good amount of time to plan but was totally worth it to see everyone having a blast and laughing together- especially not just in the usually cliques that we sometimes fall into! Thank you to all who came and were such good sports... thank you to my volunteer couples who helped in anyway- I couldn't have done it without you.... thank you to McBride's for providing our starting/finish line as well as our celebration/awards ceremony location... and thanks to my cute parents (especially newly announced cancer surviving mom- what a trooper:) for making the trip out to be a part of the fun!

If you have ideas for future races- I'd love to hear them- EMAIL me so my future racers don't see! That night Michael said, "that was awesome sweetheart- but how on earth are you going to top it every year?!?!"

Here are some of the fun things we did:
Couples received 90 second head start for dressing as a famous couple (bottom right below- Bella and Edward- Yes- Ben Smith actually sparkled!), matching, or in "SERIOUS St. Patrick's Garb" since it was on St. Patrick's day. Special shout out to Meg aka Napoleon Dynamite. I still can't believe we did not get a good picture! This was after the race and the frow had given way to coming in 2nd and needed to be put up.
Opening: Once they got their clue- they headed to the backyard to play Kaboom Mallows (thanks Hicks cousins- I stole many of these from past Bodell game shows I think!) where one player has to flip a mini marshmallow on a plate and the other player has to catch it in their mouth from behind the line. As soon as they caught 5 in their mouth- they grabbed the closest couple to form their team and get their first clue.
1) Footloose- choose between a (swim) flipper footrace relay or a flip your shoe in a laundry basket from across the yard.

2) Duet Quartet- Have 2 armless Lip Syncers and 2 real singers/arms in the back to anyone not involved in the race. I put the address of one of my friends who was recovering from a trip to the hospital and couldn't come to the party and so I showed her, eh!!! I hope she enjoyed the evening of entertainment. Although my favorite part of this one was that Mitzi's group did their performance then asked to take the mandatory picture proof and that is when they realized their audience did not speak a lick of English!Seriously, look at the smile on Mike McBride's face... TOTALLY WORTH IT!

3)Elephant March- Nylon on the head and knock down the water bottles.
4) Food Challenge- 2 cans of Vienna Sausages, full pack of Saltines, and a pickle (it seemed like it needed a garnish :) ... yeah... I'm pretty sure some of these are never going to speak to me again :)
5) Park St Patrick's Day Beach Relay- Teams were supposed to flick the beach ball to the next couple all the way down the field and back.... but I hear each team did this a little different once they found their own strategy with the wind.6) Lowe's Paint Swatches- I gave them 3 paint swatches each and they had to go to Lowe's to find the EXACT same 3 swatches
7) Choose one of those swatches and head across the parking lot Target to find a matching nail polish and 2 sports drinks (for under $5 provided with clue). All 4 players needed to paint their fingers (or toes) with the nail polish before getting the next clue. Although many of the men tried to get it off before church the next day- you could still see it a bit and it made me smile!8) How do you stack up? Mandarin Orange Stack (5) or Chocolate Unicorn with 9 oreos on the other players forehead.
9) Get one ducky with a star on its belly and head for the finish line. I hear Brother Carrell and the Bethers did an AWESOME job of making sure all duckies stayed in the VERY middle of the pool which made for a REALLY wet finish for many of your racers! I hope I didn't cause anyone pneumonia!

1st place- Smith/Taylor
2nd place-Johnson/Abhau 3rd Place-McBride/Morgernstern
4th Place- Merrill/Whitehead 5th place- Gates/Bethers
6th Place- Haines/Venuti/Reese 7th place- Hale/Hopkinson/Hubbard
not pictured 8th- Moore/Eaton... they were too busy giving up and getting frostys!

After the race- we had yummy food and enjoyed socializing, March Madness games, and of course the women took over the theater room for a little Just Dance 3 on the Kinnect.

It was TOTALLY worth it to see people crossing the finish line with HUGE smiles and a lot of laughter! Thanks again to all the good sports! We'll see you next year! Thanks especially to my sweetie for all his help and support for preparing the Race.