it's a serious competition

*Even Yo-Gabba-Gabba wanted to get in on the action. Fortunately, we never had to implement

an interference policy. He just wanted to have some fun!

 

One of the best parts of a holiday weekend, at least around my family, is the obstacle course. Everyone participates. Everyone has fun. And there are always prizes.

This event is typically organized by my Pops and my mom always comes up with some great prizes (think toys from the dollar store and Peruvian candies) These are complicated events. Each participant must possess skill, dexterity, speed, agility and the ability to not be embarrassed by looking like a fool. The obstacle course is truly a highlight of any holiday weekend. Once the course has been run by each participant, my Pops takes great care and effort to utilize spread sheets to calculate the winners. All scores are tallied, averaged, numbers are extracted and serious calculation takes place. Upon completion of the task, winners are declared and prizes are awarded in an awards ceremony that is only topped by the Oscars.

Sadly, with my parents off on an exotic vacation (serving an LDS mission in Peru) the organization of the events were left to Meggie and me. Meggie designed a simple, yet fun course. Kick a small volleyball (I guess she couldn't find a soccer ball?!?) to the line. From there run to the "cul-d-sac" of the backyard, spin three times and toss a frisbee into a buck. Proceed to ladder golf and toss 3 pieces (and hope to earn a few bonus seconds). From there run to the three balls---one basketball & 2 rubber 4-square balls. Toss all three into the bin (and try not to hit the kid holding the bin sturdy in the face). Sprint up the hill and tag the timer to stop the clock. It's a very high tech timing system we employ for the event. With the kids left to run the show, there were no spread sheets involved this year. We reverted back to the stone age and used paper, pen and a stop watch (at least the stop watch was on an iPhone, so we're not that lo-tech!) With simple math we calculate the winners--total time minus any bonus seconds earned on the course.

 *me getting ready to start the course. yes, it is that serious (& that fun)!

Luckily, I keep a stash of candy in my house. We were able to provide some delicious treats to the winners. Grey was very disappointed to not have the overall winning time--Jonathan beat his time .1 seconds (but only after bonus points were deducted). And, if you were wondering, I did have the fastest overall female time--yes, I beat 3 girls under the age of 10, a mother of 6 and my younger sister (and I still feel good about myself!)

Once all prizes are awarded the fun truly begins. You see, everyone wants to beat their previous time, get the fastest overall time or some other equally as worthy goal. The course is run a million more times! The best part--a few of my 25 year old brother's friends were over for a BBQ. We made a couple of them run the course. And then got to tease them for having slower times than a 9 year old girl! Hey, if you take the harassment that is part of the game, then just don't show up at our house on a holiday!

For even more fun pictures, compliments of the AMAZING Meggie, visit our family blog.