I am behind. Not just a little bit but like a month. You probably already know that. So I am gonna catch up as much as possible when possible so it may happen that I post a few in one day, I know taboo but whatever. This post I think has been daunting for me cause I knew it was gonna be a long post… that’s probably why I put it off…it took me a long time. you might not make it through, good luck ;)
My baby sister turned 21 at the end of April and my big brother Nate turned 30 (their birthdays are a day apart). It was Easter weekend so it was a busy one for us. Dave and Rach came home for the weekend so we were able to have a big party for them. When Rach said they were coming and said we needed to do something fun I started thinking… and we turned my idea into a down town Auburn clue hunt. My mom Chrisy Allie and I spent a few hours in down town Auburn one Saturday coming up with clues that the teams had to figure out. Once we got a general idea of what we were going for Chrisy took the info home and developed, printed it, and on game day she had a 5x7 manila envelope for each team with copies of the clue sheets and a pen inside each one. She’s on it!
The clues were organized so that the “hint” gave them information for a location in down town Auburn that would give them the answer we were looking for.
Here were some of our rules
you have 1 hour 15 min Team must stay together, if you need to go into a store send only 1-2 people. You have one lifeline phone call to Sarah or Chrisy (minus 1 point if used). We also had bonus point options: 5 points for answering ALL clues correctly 1 point for every minute you are early-but minus 1 for every minute late (we didn’t write this but ended up maxing that at 10 I think for + points) 2 points for brining us a cookie :) (it was part of a clue, pretty sneaky a they were good too!) 5 points for a team pic everybody has to be in it 5 points for our mystery guest, my uncle Jim and cousin Mike sat in down town Auburn inconspicuously so the teams could find them. 5 points possible for a team name and 5 points possible for a team song or cheer about Nate and Rachels birthdays.
here are some pictures.
here is the group getting instructions from Chrisy
Dan’s team
Nate’s team
Nick’s team he was a little annoyed because they would have had a perfect sheet except he listened to someone about one of the answers instead of checking himself and they got it wrong there go 6 points…
in the above picture are two teams looking for this clue
“who’s name is engraved behind the forty-five ton Claude Chana statue? (hint: May 1975)
the answer: ok you see that purple tree on the left of the picture? see the fence? on the other side of the fence is a drop off into some water but the concrete sticks out about 8 inches after the fence and someone “engraved” their name in the wet concrete. This was a tricky one for a few of our teams we got asked repeatedly are you sure its behind? are you sure its 1975?
ok the above picture is an easy one. The clue “who is “keeping it real” at the corner of commercial and Washington. I stuck a picture of my brother Nate on the poster on the wall that said “keeping it real”
in the above picture is the bakery we sent them into to get a cookie for us. Here was the clue “We would like to “taste the difference”. Thankfully we don’t need to be bilingual. Check out their baked good and buy a chocolate chip cookie. But don’t be to quick to eat it… on another clue we tell them to bring it to us at a specific spot. “taste the difference” is written on the store I think.
in the above pictures if you look carefully you will see our mystery guest. To get the points they needed to take a picture of them.
last clue example… in the above picture the clue read
at station A- who has “friendly professional staff, great service”? (hint #5)
the answer. if you clicked on the picture the sign hanging says US postal station A so that is where you need to be but that ins’t your answer because it doesn’t answer the question… (that threw at least one team off) if you look at the outside of the building, where half the team is looking, there is a map to down town auburn and each location has a number. Number 5 is Kerry Terese hair salon (my aunt’s salon)
WE had 22 questions that covered down town Auburn. It was the perfect location for our game because it was easy walking distance and there were so many potential clues hidden everywhere.
There were a few teams that weren’t thorough enough and lost points for not thinking through each question. We made it tricky but that’s what made it fun :) my mom kept saying that’s too hard and Chrisy and I would just smile. We did give them a few easy ones.
After the teams finished we drove back to my parents house for dinner the the teams got judged by our mystery guest and my parents on their team name and songs and such.
My uncle Matt and Aunt Nancy wrote this poem
the named their team Morgan Falls because one of their team members fell
Morgan Falls tribute to Nate and Rach
She’s 21 and lots of fun, he’s 30 but not very perty
she went away but he’s home to stay
she’s fresh and young still. he’s over the hill
she likes to study he likes to puddy (he’s a painter)
Don't get me wrong their both part of this song
Nate’s a good man if you get him to sand
rach would love a date but she studies too late
tis true they’re not the same and they have more in common than just a last name
if you’ve ever been on the field you know neither of them yield
then have talent to spare try to bet them if you dare
they are both lots of fun but trust me they’ll win when it’s done
we love you both the same even if you beat us in the game.
they scored 3 for a name my Uncle Jim (my mom’s brother) was very funny as a judge and he said they docked them points because it was insensitive, lol. they also got 4 for their poem.
this teams name was uniformed because they said that the clues left them felling uniformed. They did a song with the shaker things. here is how it went
O happy birthday o happy birthday
your another year old o happy birthday o happy birthday
you can have a beer cold (hand Rach a beer, lol) o happy birthday o happy birthday
Don’t expect a gift unless bought at the thrift
your another year old you’re paints as good as gold
o happy birthday to you two!
Dan and Rachs team sang a song to the Jackson 5’s 123 abc.
their team name was something like the fabulous 5. tom and Charity I believe were doing a linked wave thing here. they were cute.
their lyrics said
on April 18 you turned 30 today you walked around auburn wound up last but that’s ok because baby you and me its our birthday.
Nicks team was called
“Nick and Blake take the Thornton’s to Sierra”
I don’t think they scored very high points for that creativity… Joc tried to play the guitar as they sang a happy birthday song in Spanish and acted like they were drunk. Uncle Jim docked them points because this was a family environment and they seemed intoxicated, lol, he seriously cracked me up with his judging deliberations.
our judges I couldn’t fit Mike in the picture but he was there too)
Gav did this cool guitar solo and then they sang “we’ve got clues yes we do, we’ve got clues yes we do, we’ve got clues how bout you?” Even though the guitar didn’t really combine with the song (he didn’t play while they sang) they got major points for coolness. their name was Savvy Scaves (they were Savvy scavengers…) I think they got docked a point on the name because it sounded menacing… lol
here were pics of cake and presents.
my sleepy babies
the final score came down to…
Dan and Rach’s team won with 79 points
Nate’s team lost by .5 with 78.5
Nicks team got 67.25…
and in last was Uncle matt and aunt nancy’s team with 62
we all had a blast! our family is fun, loud, busy, competitive, a little crazy, and we all love to be together!
Happy birthday Nate and Rach we love you!
