Tweet
Hard to believe we are less than a week away from the 9th Gumball Rally!!!!
The Gumball Rally is one of my absolute favorite experiences every year. I love being a part of such an amazing group of people who produce this incredible, unique event year after year (all of whom volunteer their time and expertise). We have a good mix of new and returning teams for this year's Rally.
Here are a few of my favorite memories through the years:
There are so many more memories that I have that I hold close to my heart. The Gumball Rally is one of the events I look forward to the most every year. It brings me closer to my friends, brings new friends into my life, and gives me something to into which I put a lot of heart and passion. I am looking forward to adding new memories to the list this year!
If you would like to see some of what has happened during the Gumball Rally through the years, check out the older threads talking about the Rally. The pictures, the videos, the trash talking thread (especially the one for the second year!), the questions, the memories. I love it all!
Gumball Rally Search
Thank you to everyone who continues to make the Gumball Rally possible, teams, staff, and all!
The Gumball Rally is one of my absolute favorite experiences every year. I love being a part of such an amazing group of people who produce this incredible, unique event year after year (all of whom volunteer their time and expertise). We have a good mix of new and returning teams for this year's Rally.
Here are a few of my favorite memories through the years:
Gumball Rally 2006
- The anticipation on the Motorboat Dock as we waited for the first ever winner of the Gumball Rally to show up.
- Being really nervous in front of everyone at the Awards Party while playing the "Have You Ever" game.
- Going back to the Disneyland Hotel to find that we had checked in so late that we got a suite!
Gumball Rally 2008
- Waiting at the waterfall in DCA for it to be turned on after rope drop. Then realizing after 15 minutes that it wasn't going to be turned on that day.
- Being able to have a nice, quiet walk over to Tortilla Joe's with Dusty, talking about the future of the Gumball Rally.
- Having the chance to meet teams at the Awards Party.
- Meeting Minkertonkey for the first time and giving her the first of many heartfelt hugs.
- Trying not to make eye contact with Elly since I knew that her team had placed third in the event.
- Being excited when Kuzcochick knew the answer to the trivia question about Kuzco during the Awards Party game.
Gumball Rally 2009
- The first ever Pasta Party! It was so much fun! The look on Charlie's face when he realized that people were stealing the trophy for fun during the party.
- Since I am normally over briefing the Spotters at a secret location when the teams are receiving their Rally packets, I never get a chance to see all the teams together the morning of the Rally. I had to take a couple extra packets back for the teams this time. I was in complete awe when I saw all the teams assembled in one location.
- Enjoying a quiet moment at the Hearthstone Lounge in the middle of the day.
- Looking out over the Awards Party as it was being setup.
- The feeling of quiet exhaustion after the final results had been tallied.
Gumball Rally 2010
- Being able to watch IndianaJenn receive the first ever MiceChat Staff Award for the Rally. She does so much for the site, not just during the Rally, but all year long. She is the bestest Rally partner in crime a girl could ask for! :love:
- The simple fact that I worked hard at ensuring that I met as many teams as possible during the event. I get a chance to talk to a number of the teams before the event, so it is always good to be able to put faces to the names and voices.
- The lengths that teams went to for their outfits! Is It October Yet's 3D t-shirts. The Gumball jewelry that Wonders in Wonderland made. Tiki Room Rejects incredibly coordinated outfits.
- The big hug I got from Tinkermonkey when she placed in the Top Three.
Gumball Rally 2011
- The planning meetings and phone calls. We have an incredible and dedicated staff who put so much energy into the event every year!
- Planning being at the event with my mom and kids and the daughter of one of my oldest and dearest friends.
- The nervous feeling I keep getting in the pit of my stomach when I see the number of participants and teams in this year's Rally. The numbers boggle my mind every time I see them.
- The knowledge that this is the biggest and best Rally we have ever produced for our participants! There are still lots of surprises in store for everyone.
- Sharing my favorite cupcakes with a friend at the Pasta Party.
- Having people tell me that they were impressed with how well my son did with helping with the Rally.
- Watching my exhausted daughter cross the finish line.
Gumball Rally 2012
- Finesse. It was the smoothest Rally yet! The staff really did a stellar job and it showed throughout the event!
- Finally convincing Tinkermonkey that the staff side of the event is where she belongs. She was an absolute life saver! There are rules. You know too much now. You could never go back. Just sayin'. :rules:
- For the first time ever, I was able to cheer the teams as they began the Rally. Everyone's energy level was so high. It was awesome!
- Having time to meet teams throughout the day.
- The fezzes. Such a cool honor!
- Hugs. The hugs are always one of the best parts!
Gumball Rally 2013
- The theme, the trophy, and OMG! all the artwork for the printed materials. Fishbulb really went above and beyond!
- The introduction of Google Form to the registration process. I miss talking to the teams before the Rally, but it has made managing the event and my personal life so much easier.
- Smooth pre-registration for all the teams at the Pasta Party. It was a first for us and it made things so much easier the next morning.
- The teams, as always! So much positive energy. It makes me almost as happy as Christmas morning.
- Teasing a friend playing in the Rally. (You know who you are.)
- All of the younger team members asking for souvenirs. As a mom, I am always impressed by the kids who run in the Rally next to all of the adults. Some are even veterans.
Gumball Rally 2014
- Being able to share the event with my daughter. We turned the weekend into a mother-daughter weekend. She had so much fun playing in the event.
- The addition of the newest award: Gumball Rally Traditions Award.
- And, of course, the group photo at the Castle! The picture is on my desktop at work to remind me that there is magic in every day.
There are so many more memories that I have that I hold close to my heart. The Gumball Rally is one of the events I look forward to the most every year. It brings me closer to my friends, brings new friends into my life, and gives me something to into which I put a lot of heart and passion. I am looking forward to adding new memories to the list this year!
If you would like to see some of what has happened during the Gumball Rally through the years, check out the older threads talking about the Rally. The pictures, the videos, the trash talking thread (especially the one for the second year!), the questions, the memories. I love it all!
Gumball Rally Search
Thank you to everyone who continues to make the Gumball Rally possible, teams, staff, and all!
)
The forums for whatever reason doesn't let me add spaces between my paragraphs D: 2012 Team ATAK!'s first Gumball Rally! We've always knew about it and always wanted to do it, but due to our involvement with our club at school, we were never able to participate... until this year! We were super pumped and super excited, but were also complete noobs! I remember our team starting off pretty strong, but after a few hours we kept running into ride closures and lost our strong start. We kind of knew towards the end that we weren't going to win because of the bad luck we faced, but decided that it was more important to have fun. And that's what we did! So my advice for all the first time Gumball Rally participants (it seems like there's quite a few this year!) is to remember to have fun! Winning is awesome, but having a good time with your friends and fellow MiceChatters is awesomer. Don't forget you're here to have a good time! 2013 Team ATAK!'s second Gumball Rally! We were super excited to be racing for our second year. We definitely had less hiccups compared to last year but a few things did happen to us. Space Mountain went down on us when we had FastPasses for it, which also caused us to miss Autopia. Also, I won't say what we did, but we also accidentally made a HUGE mistake on one of the attractions that probably could've disqualified us. We felt so bad that we waited in line for the ride AGAIN to hopefully alleviate the mistake we made. It was honestly an honest mistake and we would never do anything that would disqualify our team. We are firm believers in playing fair and good sportsmanship! Overall, we felt good until the 6:30PM mark came around when we had to make the tough decision to continue the race or finish early to gain the extra points. We decided to gamble and skip the extra points. Unfortunately for us, it didn't pan out and we actually lost points. We were late by 3 minutes! We made a huge mistake choosing our last attraction for the race. If we made a different choice for our last ride and if it wasn't for that cursed light on Harbor (we waited 2 minutes for that light to change!), we would've made it to the finish line on time. As we were sitting at the Award Ceremony, I was thinking about how if everything went perfectly for us, we definitely would've had enough points to be in the Top 10. However, we aren't sad about what happened because we had fun! But we did tie with Kessel Runners for Best Team Logo, which was totally awesome! They definitely deserve that award for their AMAZING logo. Oh, I also finally got to meet Mamabot! That was definitely a highlight for me! She gives the best hugs! 2014 Third year doing the Gumball Rally but with a new team! ... Well, what was supposed to be a new team D: Following last year's Gumball Rally, we had lots of friends asking us, "What is the Gumball Rally?" and after explaining to them what it was, we had a few people interested in doing it as well! With a maxed out team, it was impossible to keep the ATAK! team anymore, thus a new team was born! ... Then quickly disassembled due to schedule conflicts D: I always joked with my brother that he would do the Gumball Rally with me one day (because he had no interest EVER doing the Gumball Rally), and we would laugh about the notion of us being in a team together. But with the new team quickly falling apart and me not being able to find new replacements, suddenly our joke became a reality. There was lots of begging and "COME ON PLEASEEEEEEE???" and "EFF NO" exchanged between us, but through "brotherly obligations" I finally convinced him to be my teammate and he's dang grumpy about it (thus the "Grump Kims" was born!). My brother and I have an "interesting" relationship so this year's Gumball Rally is going to be real intersting. Well I guess if it weren't for him, I wouldn't be able to do this year's Rally and probably would've volunteered instead! So I guess I should be thankful (but I'll never admit that to him ). In the end though, he did a really great job! He didn't complain TOO much. We did bicker a bit and some teams who saw us bicker did think it was hilarious. I think he secretly enjoyed himself 
2015Well, it's 12AM day of the Gumball Rally and I'm still up planning a strategy. Oh jeez I'm going to be so tired D: BUT A NEW TEAM (Team Toto-GO!), A NEW YEAR! This can only go so well lol.
Comment