Couples Night / Amazing Race Edition

On Saturday night (the 24th), my dear friend, Julianne, and I hosted a super fun Couples Night -- The Amazing Race Edition. We got the idea from another friend, Laurie, and just HAD to do it. It took a lot of planning, but it was worth it. We had a blast!!





We met at Julianne's house. We assembled the teams, read them the directions for the night, handed them their "Mission" envelopes, and sent them on their way. They had to get their first set of instructions from the CD we made. First, they had to come up with a team name. Second, they had to find somewhere to eat, anywhere of their choosing. Then they could go to the start of the RACE. In order to get their first clue, they had to figure out where to go for their first clue, had to find someone with a certain license plate #. Once they found them, then they had to give their team name AND show their dinner receipt with the time-stamp. They had to have at least 20 minutes from the time stamp until they could receive their first clue.

Before the race .... unaware of what was ahead ...

Little did MOST of them know ... they were looking for ME in the parking lot of the Nugget shopping center. I verified the receipts, gave them their 1st clue, and sent them on their way to their destinations ... which included: a puzzle challenge, a boxing challenge, yogurt (a certain amount was required), Rock Band challenge (at my house) AND a swimming pool challenge -- yes, you read that right. One member of each team had to put on a swimsuit and dive to the bottom of our friend's VERY COLD pool to find the 1 Canadian penny amidst the 19 American pennies.

Once the teams finished all 5 challenges, we all met back at Julianne's house. We wrote down the times when the teams returned, factoring in any penalties. If they couldn't figure out the clue to get them to the next location, they could call me or Julianne for a 10 minute penalty. There were a few phone calls! Extra points were earned if they put the puzzle together in less than 20 minutes. They could also earn extra points by seeing how many songs they could recall from our mix CD (they did not know about this opportunity ahead of time -- they probably thought we were being nice to give them a music CD =))

So, Team "Kogan's Heroes" finished in 1st place. They won a fabulous 'Best Actress' trophy and each received a $100 grand bar.

We visited and ate more yummy food. It was fun to hear what happened at the various sites. Thanks, Raimi, for sharing your pictures!

It was so much fun! There was so much excitement and laughter. Those who didn't come REALLY missed out. It was a huge success and many are talking of 'the next time' ... which is a good sign. I think Julianne and I started something here!