Amazing Race Youth Conference - Day 2 (afternoon & evening)

For those who haven't seen the first two posts about our Amazing Race Youth Conference, you can read the first one here, and the second one here. For today's post, I'll cover all of the activities for the remainder of Day 2. I've got some photos from the stops, but for some reason, I can't find all of the photos. But, I do have a book that we made afterwards, so I've copied some of the pages here and there. Not the best copies, but at least it gives you a better idea than not seeing any photos at all.

On the last post, we left off with the kids all arriving at the lunch spot (The Lion House). We ended up eating lunch around the same time, and then at a certain pre-determined time, the teams left the lunch area two minutes apart, in the order that they arrived. This helped to shorten the times between the teams, because we had some really seriously competitive teams, and then some that basically took time to smell the roses all along the way (which may have been more enjoyable for the adults than for the kids... just saying). This departure from the lunch stop got them all closer to each other time-wise.

So, there were two different clues given at this point. It was split up so that we had basically half of the teams going to one stop, and the other half going to the other... and then afterwards, they would switch and go to the stop the other team had already been to.

One of the two clues read as follows: HISTORY SQUARED - Make your way by foot to the west gate of temple square. Safely cross the street and go to the location where one might find interesting facts about one's ancestors. Find the Task Supervisor in the lobby and ask for the "Scavenger Hunt" sheet. Complete the hunt as a team, and then go back to the same Task Supervisor in the lobby. They will check your work and give you your next clue.

The other of the two clues read: HISTORY SQUARED - Make your way by foot to the west gate of temple square. Safely cross the street and go to the location where one might find interesting facts about church history. Complete the enclosed sheet as a team and then locate a Task Supervisor in the lobby to have your work checked and receive your next clue.

So, we had a Task Supervisor located in each of the lobbies -- the Family History Center and the Church History Museum. In the Family History Center, there was a Scavenger Hunt Sheet that was actually provided by the Family History Center for youth to use to get to know the facility.

After the team completed that sheet, they went back to the lobby where the Task Supervisor gave them this clue: "Now that you are an expert in genealogy, it is time to become an expert in church history. Make your way to the Church History Museum and complete the enclosed Scavenger Hunt Worksheet. Once that is finished, make your way to the Deuel Pioneer Log Home. To obtain your next clue, you must have your team photographed in front of the log home and turn in your scavenger hunt to the Task Supervisor located near the home."

In the Church History Museum, we had a Task Supervisor located in the lobby, where they were given a worksheet that we had made up, based on the activities and items located in the museum.  There were several questions they had to find the answers to, as well as photos that they had to have taken, as a team.

(sorry for the grainy photo... I couldn't find the original)

After the team completed the sheet, they basically got the same clue as the one just above, but it sent them to the Family History Center first, and then the Deuel Pioneer Log Home.

At the Deuel Pioneer Log Home, I had a friend stationed there as the Task Supervisor. They had to prove to her that they had been to the Family History Center and the Church History Museum, and then they had their team photo taken in front of the log home.

Once that was completed, she handed them a clue, which read: LINCOLN LOG PHOTO OPP - Make your way on foot as a team to the Brigham Young Historic Park, which is across the street (east) from the Church Office Building. When you arrive, the Team Parents must open the enclosed envelope and follow the instructions.

It was pretty great to see all the
teams travelling around together
in their matching shirts...

So, the teams made their way to the Brigham Young Historic Park, which is a walk (or jog) of a couple of city blocks. When they got to the park, their Team Parents opened the envelope with the clue. It said: Teams should now make their way to the place Brigham Young is buried. Don't be confused. He is not buried where most of the prophets have been laid to rest. To find his grave site, travel south on State Street to 1st Avenue. Go east on 1st Avenue until you find the small cemetery. Locate the clue box to receive your next clue.

The teams then walked to the cemetery, and when they found the clue box, took a clue out for their team, which read: WHO KNEW? - Take a team photo with Brigham and the children on the bench. Take a rubbing of his name on his gravestone, then return as a team to your team car. Now make your way to where all but 4 of our later-day prophets have been laid to rest. Find a Task Supervisor near the Cemetery Office for your next clue.

When the teams made it to the Salt Lake Cemetery, they found the Task Supervisor there, who gave them the next clue. It read: LEARN FROM THE PAST - You are now at the Salt Lake City Cemetery, at which most of our prophets and many other church leaders have been buried. Find the headstones for the following prophets: the 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th and 15th. When you get to each grave site, have a team member read the enclosed paragraph pertaining to that person, and then make a rubbing of the name of the prophet. When you have completed all 5, return to the Task Supervisor to receive your next clue. Remember to be respectful of where you are. NO RUNNING OR YELLING.

After the teams visited all of the listed grave sites and made the rubbings, they brought the rubbings to be checked by the Task Supervisor who was still located by the cemetery office. They were then given the next clue, which read, "During the construction of the Salt Lake Temple, it took 3 to 5 days to transport the granite stones from the quarry to the construction site. Make your way to the quarry in the "little canyon". Park and locate the Task Supervisor in the parking lot for your next clue."

And this next stop was a doozy of a stop. The teams got to the Temple Quarry Trail parking lot, and found the Task Supervisor. The clue read, "DON'T BE THE WEAK LINK: You have been given a bucket of chains. Your task is to connect all of the chains into one long chain. To connect the chains, send one team member at a time on the Temple Quarry Trail loop. They must find a Task Supervisor on the trail and mention one of the 17 concepts from the For The Strength of Youth. If they name one correctly (that hasn't already been named by someone else), then the Task Supervisor will give them a carabiner, and your team member will return to your team and connect two pieces of chain with the carabiner. A 2nd team member will then go out until you have named all 17 of the concepts, and received 17 carabiners to connect your chain pieces. Once you have all 17 carabiners attached to the chains, make one trip around the entire Temple Quarry Trail with ALL OF YOUR TEAM MEMBERS holding some part of the chain the whole time. When you have returned to the parking lot, look for the clue box for your next clue".

teams trying to come up with the 17 concepts while
their team member was running on the trail

team member who just gave one of the concepts
to the Task Supervisor located on the trail

Notice the chain in their hands, which they
are all holding on to as they run around the loop

Can I just say we almost killed off most of the adults and several of the youth? They were so pooped by this part of the race, that they were practically dragging by the time they were finished with this activity. We made sure to tell them beforehand that they couldn't look up the answers on their phones or on their For The Strength of Youth cards in their wallets. They needed to put their heads together and think about the concepts. This was a learning experience for everyone, as they thought long and hard to come up with all 17 concepts.

The next clue read: What do they call people who go down south for the winter? As a team, make your way to the resort with the same name. Drive to Entry 2 and park near the resort center / tram. Using your CONNECT PASSES, get a ticket for each team member for the tram ride. Ride up as a team and locate a familiar person from the ward. Have them take a photograph of your entire team, and then they will give you your next clue."

The teams rode up the tram as they got to Snowbird. Once they got to the top of the mountain, they had to locate someone familiar (my son). He was sitting down on the ground over the ledge, just checking out the lovely view, so they had to look around quite a bit to find him. When they found him, they got this clue, SOARING OVER UTAH: You have just soared along a 1.6 mile cable and up 2900 feet to the top of Hidden Peak, which sits at 11,000 feet. You have been involved in a wide variety of activities today that have tested your mental and physical abilities. Proceed to ------- East and --------- South where you will be fed literally and figuratively so that you will be ready for tomorrow's race. Park in front and follow the arrows.

The teams all arrived at our friend's home (who lived outside of our ward and stake boundaries). They checked in at the Pit Stop Mat, and had their team photos taken, and also had their arrival time documented on the poster.

They were all treated to a barbecue dinner, and then a fantastic speaker, David A. Christensen. We had thought about playing games after that, but honestly, they were all so tired out from the day, we just roasted marshmallows afterwards, sat around and talked about the day's activities, and then the kids were taken back to their own homes to sleep for the night.

Before they left for the night, we told them we would be doing Temple Baptisms first thing in the morning. This was part of the youth conference, but not part of the race. We had the girls go at a certain time, and then the boys at another time. We told them beforehand that this would be part of the youth conference, so they knew to prepare for that. We didn't want it to be part of the race because we obviously didn't want them rushing through that special experience, and we also didn't want it to be obvious if anyone wasn't able to be there for that part of the activity.

We told them that after the temple trip, we would meet back at the church at 10:30 on Saturday morning, ready to continue the race.

Now, I haven't given every planning detail of each individual stop and activity. There is way too much to include here. Just know that each of the stops required a previous stop or two by us. We had to make contact with people (if the stops had people other than ours manning it), and we had to check and recheck the time involved in the stop, so that we could coordinate the day's events pretty accurately. We didn't want one team to get ahead of all of the others by too much time, so once in a while, we'd have a "rest stop" where we'd all catch up with each other, like at the Lion House lunch stop, and also the cemetery. Then, we'd have the teams leave in the order they arrived, two minutes apart.

Check back for post(s) on Day 3, the final day.

For information about the entire Amazing Race, 

click below on the specific days.

To read about Day 1 - click here.

To read about Day 2 - morning, click here.

To read about Day 3 - click here.