First version had like over 35 gates...I re-read the chapter on K maps and started using them and I managed to simplify it to 9 AND gates to handle the states, 4 OR gates to handle the outputs of 8 of those ANDs (the lone one just outputs directly to the light) & 2 OR + 2 XOR to handle the states that were composed of the sum of other states.I missed the fact that you weren't using the inverted outputs on the flip flops. Some commercial flip flops don't have complementary outputs. In those cases, we just use an inverter when we need the inverted output.
How many gates did your solution take?