All the clues and solutions for the puzzle hunt are posted at http://puzzles.parry.org/.

Over the past month Frank put together a collection of nine pairs of boots at Work Wear House. Thank you Tammi and Frank! There was one pair for each of the nine teams. We hid one boot from each set at Work Wear House, one at the temple visitors’ center, and then the laces were in a duffel bag at the zoo. After the teams collected the pieces, they donated them to the Haven Shelter.

The theme of the puzzle hunt was family history and family memories. Most of the locations were significant to the family. We described our favorite locations in the epilogue that the teams received at the conclusion.

It feels like Christmas is over now. We waited for months for the puzzle hunt to arrive. Our biggest mistake was starting the planning back in August, so there were too many months for the anticipation to build up. We were restless sleepers Thursday night.

Friday we spent the morning driving around dropping off clues. We almost made a mistake where we left the wrong clues at Sportsman Park. We got it corrected, and then immediately made the same mistake at the zoo. Then I went back to fix it, and I left out the envelope for one of the teams. It worked out in the end because everyone was being good sports.

We made another mistake with my Uncle Steve’s age. The family calendar said that he had his 50th birthday in 2010, but it was really in 2009. For one of the clues you had to know what year Steve turned 9, and you had to dial it in to a bike lock. I had set the lock to ’69. I had to correct it to ’68 as soon as I found out. Only one of the teams had gotten to that location so far, so most didn’t need to worry about the mistake.

It felt out of control for Elisa and me while we tried to fix it. We wanted it to work out so badly. And it just would not have been an impressive puzzle hunt if it led to a dead end. And the whole time we were both on the phone, giving out hints to the teams that called us. What a madhouse. Once the glitches were all straightened out we enjoyed it again. And we were kind of spent. It might be awhile before we attempt another puzzle hunt.

Eden has a stammer that comes out every once in a while. I don’t know whether she notices it. She will act like she has something important to say, and she’ll say, “Ummm… ummm…” Sometimes it goes on for 15 seconds. She doesn’t always spit out the thought she was working on.