Andrew (Kim's brother) and Sarah came from Lubbock to visit us the last weekend in February. We competed in Austin's Great Urban Race (a scavenger hunt/road rally kind of like "The Amazing Race" TV show). We had a GREAT time together!
As soon as they arrived on Friday, we started making our costumes. Andrew and Sarah were "The Mighty Molars" and Matt, Kim, and Ian were "The Pearly Whites." But, we laughingly called ourselves "Team Oral Hygiene." Andrew was a box of floss, Sarah was a tube of Crest toothpaste, Kim was an Oral-B toothbrush, Matt was a tooth, and Ian was a white strip.
We had a great time making the costumes. Kim and Andrew laughed when remembering how they had dressed up as a toothbrush and floss and their sister, Amy, had dressed up like toothpaste for Halloween when they were young. Ah ... the memories!
On Saturday morning bright and early, we started the three hour drive to Austin. We were thrilled that the Texas Bluebonnets (Texas' state flower) was in bloom! We even had our family photographer, Sarah, along to capture the moment when we stuck Ian in a bluebonnet field!
Ian liked touching the bluebonnets!
We headed into Stubb's for the noon start of the Great Urban Race. Ian took his toothbrush as a good luck charm! :)
We got LOTS of smiles and giggles when we walked in all dressed up. We enjoyed looking at everyone else's costumes, too.
There were about 350 teams of two participating in the Great Urban Race, so there were LOTS of fun costumes! We liked the Where's Waldo? costumes. Andrew & Sarah's costumes were in the top five in the costume contest, but the couple who dressed as Marge and Homer Simpson ended up winning.
We opened our envelope of clues at 12:15 and started planning. Thankfully, we could phone some friends for help ... siblings Amy and Jason, and friends who used to live in Austin (Mike, Kati, and Jenn). We mapped everything out and then headed on our way ...
The twelve clues took us all over Austin ... to Gold's Gym where we got a salsa dance lesson ...
... and met some fun people along the way,
including a UT student (that was a BIG help!) who randomly carries floss around with him.
We had to play "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on recorder outside a pizza shop,
get our photo with someone wearing a cowboy hat (tougher to find than you might think!),
pose with a group making the Hook 'Em Horns sign in front of a fountain,
get our photos with some turtles,
get our picture in front of "RIAL STA" (part of Memorial Stadium's sign),
sample doughnuts,
lasso a metal steer,
shake a pick out of a guitar,
and see why Austin's slogan is "Keep Austin Weird."
We felt like we fit right in in our costumes. :) We just barely finished the race in the five-hour time limit, but we were excited to actually finish ... in a city that was brand-new to us all! We had a wonderful time and are completely in awe of the winners who finished in just over 1 1/2 hours!
Ian was a trooper the whole day, both in the car riding to Austin and back and during the race! We think he liked all the activity!
We finished up our day in Austin with some yummy pizza at Home Slice Pizza! What a fun day!