The Family Cochran: January 2008

New Year’s Eve Day/Night 2007

We had such a great day as a family!!! Here is how our day went from my (Savannah’s) perspective.

The morning dawned bright and sunny. When daddy woke me up at about 7:30, I was feeling great after being under the weather for a couple of days. I was very happy to be feeling better because we had a trip to Oklahoma City planned if I was.
Daddy asked me how I was feeling and asked if I could get the kids up and around while he slept just a little bit longer because him and mommy had been up until 2:00 in the morning getting things ready for the day.

On my way upstairs to wake the girls up, (Seth and I had traded beds for the last couple nights since I had been sick) I noticed that the play easel was out of place so I turned on the light and saw a couple new CD’s and DVD’s that daddy and mommy got us. I was so happy. I almost turned to go when a note on the top of the easel caught my eye:

“There’s a treasure of historic and monetary significance to be found but you mustn’t delay for you must solve the clues by the end of today.
The solutions are varied and will take teamwork to solve. The work will be worth it – don’t loose your resolve.
Each of you must be ready to contribute your part. All you have to do is be on the lookout to start.”
- The Treasure Trustee

I was SO excited I thought “another hunt how exciting!!!” I ran upstairs to wake the girls up (and Seth) and told them all about the surprises that awaited them, and the one to be found. They all flew out of bed and started jumping all around! So, we did our best to get ready as quickly as possible (the little girls were so excited that they could hardly stay focused!)
Then it happened, when Sabrina was helping the boys to get ready she found the first clue stuck in the washing machine!!! It was a piece of paper with a “CA” on it. We were all so happy and even more excited so, we all ran around doing our chores with the treasure hunt at the forefront of our minds.
Pretty soon we all heard joyous exclamations of delight and here comes Seth waving a piece of paper that he had found on his trashcan with the letter “D” on it.
Next, Sienna found her clue on the vacuum with a letter “N” on it and I wish you could have seen how she looked!!! She was jumping up and down and all around waving her piece of paper. It was SO funny!!!
I was next finding my clue in the empty water jug that I fill up each morning. Needless to say, I was pretty excited!!! My paper had a “N’S” and a blank line after the “S”.
Then, when Sayer was bringing his high chair over for breakfast, he found a piece of paper on his high chair. We were all very happy and told Sayer that “he had found a clue!” But, he actually wasn’t very happy about an “intruding” piece of paper on his high chair. He just wanted to eat his breakfast. Sayer’s clue read:
“A portion of the puzzle can be solved by referencing a historic book that contains the memories of a faithful man.”

So we were thinking. Then I remembered the book “Of Plymouth Plantation”. I ran over to the bookshelves and started flipping through “Of Plymouth Plantation” and… a piece of paper fell out!!! I was jumping up and down!!! The paper read:

FC SPCWQTPC GQ GL W AMX SFWS QMKCSGKCQ RMLSWGLQ PCRMPQ

I thought, “a message to decipher, yeah!” But, we had to finish breakfast and get on the road to OKC before we could work on it anymore. I was thinking about it all the while.
Stasia was beginning to wonder if she would ever find her clue. While the rest of us were doing our chores, Seth and Stasia were looking all over for another clue. They were looking in drawers, behind furniture and in cabinets. What good little treasure hunters!!!

So we loaded up our gear and started heading for the van. Sabrina and I brought along the essentials for clue solving: deciphering material, my codebook and of course, our clues!
Stasia was putting on her coat and realized that she could not bend her arm after putting it into her sleeve. She had found her clue in her coat sleeve! She was VERY excited!!!

Our family had a fantastic day together in OKC. In the car on the way there, Sabrina and I figured out that all of the letters that each of us had found that morning unscrambled into “Duncan’s” and then a blank line. We had a couple different ideas of what the “blank” could be but we were pretty sure that it was “War”, “Duncan’s War” (one of our favorite books). We also enjoyed listening to our new harp music CD and Patch The Pirate.
We ate lunch at PF Changs. It was very good. When we got back out to the car I found a clue on my seat. It read: “The blank holds the key”. What could that mean?
I had plenty of time to think about it while we did our shopping (which was a lot of fun!) I had several different ideas of what the answer could be, But, I still needed to figure out what kind of cipher it was. I new it wasn’t an anagram and I didn’t think it was Caesar cipher, what about a key word cipher?! I was excited because that would make since. So I thought with the blank in “Duncan’s” and the blank in the clue, if it was a key word cipher (which seemed very likely now) the key word was more than likely “War”. Sabrina agreed that this must be right. So, I went to work on trying to figure out how on earth you decipher key word ciphers. I found some information on it and found it to be very fascinating. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the right gear with me to solve it so, I excitedly awaited getting home so we could solve the clue and find the treasure!!!
We all got ice cream at Maggie Moos. It was so much fun!!! We also went to the health food store a bookstore and Daddy and Mommy got coffee. We then headed home. What a great day we had and it wasn’t over!!!
We stopped at Wal-Mart to get some final party food for our family celebration that night. The plan was to hang out, watch our new DVD’s one with two creation films and the other one, “Dinosaurs and the Bible” and also, “Flywheel” (by the same people with "Facing The Giants"). They all turned out to be very good!
Now, back to where I left off.
When we got home, Sabrina and I worked on getting the food ready. I COULDN’T WAIT to finish solving that clue.
Finally the moment arrived, the key word cipher solved, I read it out loud for everyone to hear:

“The treasure is in a box that sometimes contains files”.

Mommy and Daddy said “you solved it!!!” All of us kids were so excited. We started looking all over, going thru boxes, the little ones looking in all the cabinets, drawers and anything else possible. Then it happened, Sabrina spotted a box underneath mommy’s desk.
She had found it!!! She called for all of us to come there. We opened it. Inside were six little treasure boxes, one for each of us kids. How Exciting!!! We carried it out the to the table and handed out the treasure boxes. Inside each of ours were special memory items that belonged to our great-grandmother, grandfather and mommy. The boys got airplanes too and we all got some coins that had never been circulated. We were so happy. What wonderful treasures!!! What a special thing for our parents to put together for us and I’ll never forget it. We had a wonderful rest of the evening, we all stayed up until midnight (Sienna and Stasia stayed awake longer then the rest of us. We fell asleep!).

What a great day we had together. Happy New Year!!!

Told by: Savannah