Family Olympics 2015

Angel's 31st birthday was celebrated this past weekend, in a particularly unique manner.

Some months ago, Angel brought up an idea during a Skype conversation that we should have a Family Olympics tournament this summer while everyone is together. It should be noted that, as a whole, my family is not really famous for their athletic prowess.

Because getting up early in the morning and running and jumping around is not our idea of a good time, it took a little convincing for all of us to decide that a friendly competition would be a fun way to spend a free Saturday morning. In the end, the fact that we are very competitive won over the fact that we are not very athletic, and the Family Olympics were held for the first time on July 18, 2015. The entire event, including rest breaks where we lay on the ground and complained that we could not move our muscles any more, took about 3 hours.

We held eight different events:

Footrace
Yoga Ball Throwing
Long Jump
Limbo
Planking (longest)
Push-ups (most in 1 min.)
Sit-ups (most in 1 min.)
Jump-roping (longest)

Prizes make everything more interesting, so the day before the Olympics, we went to the local 'dollar store' to buy prizes for each event. Someone with a quirky sense of humor may have been in charge of shopping for prizes...we ended up having quite a range of prizes, from toothbrushes to scrubbing sponges (a pack of 12!) to bobby pins, socks, and temporary tattoos in the shape of scorpions.

As we all predicted, Angel won the majority of the events held, with a total of five events. He won the race by a lead of 6 seconds, the long jump by a lead of over 50 inches....so yeah. We had already planned to throw out all of Angel's scores, knowing that he competes on a different level than the rest of us. So, in the five events that he won, prizes were awarded to the 2nd place winners.


Notable other winners include ME! I won the jumproping competition with a grand total of 120 skips--barely beating Anna's 117 skip record--before falling to the ground in an agony of exhaustion. Sarah, having a significant size advantage over the rest of us, performed fantastically in the limbo, finally winning by managing to pass under the mop when it was held a mere 26 inches from the ground.

Even Mom gained athletic acclaim through sheer stubbornness. The planking competition involving everyone planking at the same time, with individuals calling themselves out when they couldn't bear to do it any longer. It was down to Mom and I, and while I knew I had more planking experience, I knew I could never beat Mom in a battle of sheer stubbornness, so I crumpled to the floor to spare myself the excess pain.

We enjoyed our morning of competition very much, and I thought it was awesome that we were able to include events that everyone, from age 47 to age 8, could compete in in their own way.

We celebrated the end of the Olympics with the award ceremony, where prizes were given out to 1st or 2nd place winners, and we ate mint surprise cookies and Angel opened his birthday presents. After lying around for an hour recovering from our morning's exertion, we worked up the energy to make Angel's quesadilla birthday lunch.

'Twas a day for the record books.

And I'm still sore, two days later.