The race took place at East Coast Park on the east side of the beautiful tropical island of Singapore!
Mike was the boss/referee of this event. Here he is laying out the rules of the race to everyone at the starting line: Basically, the rules were that there are no rules and we don't have permission to be holding a "race" so just try not to run into anyone with your bikes!
The bummer about Mike being in charge of this event was that Mike and I didn't get to race! We were official judges. So, our family was split into teams with their friends:
Sammy was on "Team Dynamite" with 3 of her friends.
Bailey was on the "Tweenies" team with 2 of her friends and one dad.
Carson was on the "Kindy's" team with 2 other kindergarten buddies and one mom.
Jack was a beach boy and played in the sand for 3 hours while everyone raced.
Challenge #1: Most of the race was done on bikes. So, at the starting line each team was given an envelope with their first challenge. Inside the envelope were directions to go to either McDonald's or Burger King and bring back a Big Mac or Whopper. Then one person from each team had to eat their hamburger in front of their judges (me!). When they had chewed their last bite, I gave them an envelope to open with directions for their second challenge...
Here's Carson eating a Whopper...with gusto!
Here's Sammy's team (Team Dynamite!) with Hollie still trying to get that Big Mac down:
Challenge #2: Next the teams had to run down to the sand and quickly bury half of their team in the sand. I have no photos of this b/c I was still judging the burger scarfdown.
Challenge #3: This time the teams had to decide whether to take the envelope for: Swim or Space; without knowing what the 2 challenges would entail...
If they chose the "swim" option then they had a long bike ride down to an area where one team member had to swim in the ocean between 2 points.
If they chose the "space" option then they had a shorter bike ride down to a pretty garden. Inside the garden they had to find a map of the solar system and answer some trivia questions that Mike made up for them.
Challenge #4: This envelope lead the teams to a long jetty where, upon arrival, they had to get off of their bikes and SKIP down the entire jetty, arm in arm with their teammates singing, "We're off to see the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz!" This was no small feat b/c it was a long jetty and with the hot, humid weather here it takes it's toll on you...
Challenge #5, The Final Challenge: Next the teams had to head to the 360 degree cable ski area. Here, one member of each team had to ski, wakeboard, knee board or surf. They just had to try to make it to the end of the first turn of the ski track.
(Mike had made a deal with the owners of the ski track the week before. He paid them $180 for our group to use the track. However, the one participant chosen from each group was only allowed 3 tries to get up.
Sammy was the choice for her team since she's done the ski cable track before. She chose to knee board and made it one entire time around the track before wiping out!
Bailey's team chose the dad to wake board. Carson's team had a third grade boy knee board. (This was a boy who showed up late for the race so he and his dad were added to Carson's team!) It's a good thing b/c you have to be 7 years old to ride the cable ski!
Carson's team finished in the top 10 which wasn't bad for having three 6 year-olds on their team. Sammy's team finished about 14th and Bailey's was second to last. Bails wasn't too excited with her teams ranking. (One girl on Bailey's team had just learned to ride a bike that same day!)
Here's Jack and his pal Katie hanging out being super fans of the amazing race! (Jack will probably be ready to race next year. He was feeling a bit left out today.)
Here's Carson getting his medal at the Finish Line!!! Well Done!
We're happy he made it to the finish line b/c he and his buddy Ashton took off so fast at the beginning of the race that they passed right by the Burger King and were lost from their team for a while. This was actually a good lesson for them b/c once they were lost I think they realized that they needed to flippin' chill out and stay with their team. Glad we live in Singapore where 2 six-year olds can be lost for a little while without complete panic...just a slight dose of panic!
The only other disaster was another 6 year old (girl) who fell right at the starting line and her dad took her to the hospital to get the cut on her knee glued together.
Bailey with a fellow "Tweenies" team member and friend Kierica:
This really was fun disguised as a ward party! Mike deserves every bit of credit because he planned this entire race himself and did all the work himself. Kudos to him. He pulls off great activities because of his combined talents of: great organization, leadership, creativity and love for having fun!
