questival

I've had friends do Questival in years past, but I never really understood what it was. So when my sis-in-law Anya asked if any of the family wanted to do it with her for her birthday, I was curious and interested to finally find out what all the fuss was about. Our team consisted of Anya and her son Noah, my brother Brandon and sis-in-law Amy, Russ & myself, and at the last minute, Anya's brother Matt joined in.

Questival is called a "24-hour scavenger hunt," but I don't think scavenger hunt accurately reflects what it is, because you're not looking for something. Instead, you have a giant list (350+) of activities/tasks you can do for varying point values, and the goal is to get as many points as possible, since the winner is the one with the most points. (But there were 600+ teams when we did Questival, so we weren't really trying to win, but we were trying to get as many points as possible.)

We started out full throttle and were doing task after task after task for literally 18 or 20 hours (we slept for about 6 hours in there, but still). It was fun to see how many different and random things we could accomplish in such a short time, because we all have 24 hours every day, but how many things do we really fit into that? Obviously in normal life, you try to find more productive tasks to spend time on than you do in Questival, but it's still amazing to see how you really do have a lot of time in the day if you plan, prioritize, and get to work.

In the end, we did roughly 100 tasks and came in 88th place. We had planned to spend some time up in Salt Lake doing tasks up there, but we found that we were kept busy enough sticking around Provo. Most of our time was spent in 4 places -- our campground, Walmart, Bramy's house, and BYU -- and then we spent a bit of time at my parents' house and hiking Bridal Veil Falls.

A few of our random tasks included: do a belly flop at a public pool, fill your mouth with mustard, ride a unicycle, bowl a strike, eat cauliflower like you would an apple in a public place, feed a teammate using only your elbows, make a commercial for a perfume inspired by the scent of campfire, build a house of cards, hold a hula hoop competition with a stranger, fit a teammate entirely into a storage container, and order the 12th thing off the menu.

My least favorite task was undoubtedly the one that required every teammate to eat a raw clove of garlic. I had no idea how seriously unpleasant that would be!!

I had three favorite tasks:

1. Give a teammate a real mohawk.

This one was fun because it's obviously not something Russ would normally do, but in the spirit of Questival, he went for it! Haha I just thought he was so cool, even if the mohawk only lasted for a day or so.

2. Use kitchenware to perform a boyband song.

This one was just fun. I love to perform, for sure! Haha 🙈

3. Give a cake to a stranger while singing "happy Saturday to you."

This one was my real favorite. We baked a cake and we were just trying to find a stranger to give it to. It's not like we were being extra nice or anything. But it made this girl SO HAPPY. I wish the video didn't cut off (all videos were only allowed 15 seconds) because she continued to gush for about 15 more seconds haha :)

It was also really fun to camp together (there were a ton of camping-related tasks). Lots of laughing and talking and enjoyment :)

And now, a few more photos from the event!

Like I said, we pushed strong for 18-20 hours, but it was at about that point that most of us CRASHED. I was just done. It was exhausting, and I didn't want to think and do so much anymore! haha. We had a good time and made good memories :) I'm not in a hurry to do it again anytime soon, though. 😂