The "Search" is On (in the Land of Enchantment)

Well, life went back to 'normal' today.  Mostly.  Both kiddos were back in school, the temperature was subarctic (we do live in Michigan, and it is January.  I suppose I can't whine too much) and we did the crazy back and forth after school from bus, to scarfing down dinner, to religious ed and back.  I've decided that from now on I am only doing crock pot recipes on Monday's (I tried this one for Crock Pot Chicken Teriyaki tonight.  Our notes are that the sauce is pretty thin, but everyone loved it.  Even my non chicken loving Bean.  It's a 'make it again' recipe all around) so that did make my life a little easier.  The Bean and I got home from running errands this morning and she was delighted to find the flag up on the mailbox!  The chief had told them, though that unless the clue was only addressed to one of them they had to be together to open it an work on it.  So we had to make it through dinner, class, baths, another project, a phone call and some other odds and ends first.  But then...

Kayla opened it up to find

Our first official clue

We took it into the tracking lab

It read as follows:

Dear Detectives,

MOMG has been gathering intelligence information about Nita Direction’s current whereabouts.  Enclosed is a Word Search puzzle with a list of words we keep hearing about Nita’s latest hideout.  Perhaps finding all the words will put you one step closer to nabbing Nita.  Good luck!

MOMG Intelligence

Here's the Word Search (its hard to see but it's title "Land of Enchantment")

And the word bank

They worked together (and with a few assists)

Found all the words

Then we worked on seeing if they felt really strongly that it "could" or "could not" be any of our top 20

We officially cut Ohio, Michigan, Alaska and Washington

And they felt pretty strongly that it might be Arizona or New Mexico.  Noah says it's Arizona.  Hands down.  I told him that I was sure we could expect more clues and maybe we should give it a few more days until we submit a guess.  They have been told by MOMG that they get 1 incorrect guess on each state.  It costs MOMG a lot of money to have to 'secure' a state and we don't want to send the troops out on a hunch.  He finally relented and said he'd wait a few more days.  But that he's sure she's in Arizona.

The Bean and I had plans tomorrow but they've been scrapped because of sick kiddos (boooo, feel better H!) so we're thinking maybe some Kid Kitchening may be in order.  And some nail painting.  And I'm working on cleaning out closets (booooo!).  And we're all anxiously awaiting to see what we can expect next!  So until then...

PS - I know these 'clues' are probably very simple for the average adult, but if you so happen to come across my kiddos, please don't give them any hints or tell them.  They are so far REALLY excited about all this and I want them to be challenged yet make it doable for them.