Focht Family Blog

This was another first for us. We have gone to Princess and Pirates twice and the Christmas Party once. We were actually surprised by how many adults dressed up. We aren’t sure if it because of the party or the fact it was actually Halloween night. We spent most of the day at the Kingdom so we were in costume long before most. Samantha was Lucy from Narnia and Timmy was Prince Caspian from Narnia. By the end of the evening both were tired of being called pirates since they were with a pirate family. :)

We started out having lunch at the Crystal Palace which has the Winnie the Pooh characters walking around while you are eating. Here are the pictures of the kids with each of the characters…

After lunch we headed out to go on as many rides as we could. While at the Pirate ride we had someone take a picture of all of us….

Of course after this picture was taken we had a line forming with people that wanted a picture with Nathan. I’m not sure if they thought he worked there or not…

One of the other “first” rides for Josh was Thunder Mountain. Josh rode with me so I couldn’t get a picture of him so I took a picture of Nathan and Timmy since they were behind me…

Once we officially checked in for the after hours we received a bag for trick-or-treating and a map of where the treats were. By the time we hit all of the locations we had 6 bags of candy bulging at the seams… the candy was good, name brand candies too. They also had a special parade (which we missed) and special fireworks for the party. One of the other things that they do at the after hours is have dance parties, which Samantha loves. We stopped at one for her and she danced with Nathan…

About half way through the treat locations our little pirate fell asleep…

I had to hold his bag out for him at a few stops but by the last two he was awake again. It ended with him having more energy than the rest of us when we got home because he was the one who took a nap! But… I survived and I was not the one who made the family go home for once. We left for Misty and Punch to go to the bathroom. So I guess the thyroid medications are working!

With as much as we come to Disney I wouldn’t think there would be many of these left. :) But as the kids get older and taller there are always new rides to ride. Samantha has been wanting to do a trail ride but you have to be 9 so I booked a trail ride for her and Nathan on Wednesday morning. I gave Nathan the camera to take with him and he snapped a few pictures of Samantha while on the trail. This was one of my favorites…

Her horse’s name was Colonel and although he was one of the biggest horses they have they use him for kids because he is very gentle and follows without too much help.

Our next first was the new Toy Story ride at Hollywood Studios. I took these two pictures while waiting in line. The imagineers must have had fun with this ride. The waiting line area is full of toys we grew up with, just very large versions.

Before we left the Studios, the kids saw two of their favorite characters and wanted a picture….

The next day we went to Epcot. We were told by a friend about a music group that was good that we wanted to listen to. Before listening to the music we took the kids on a few “first” rides. Here is Timmy in line for Mission: Space. He is now 44″ tall so this is the first trip he could go on the ride. He loved it!

And here is Josh in line for Test Track. Josh is 40″ so he has finally hit the mark for most of the rides.

Next up, Halloween….

Okay… sad commentary on our lives. We were bummed because we couldn’t use our DVR to record the shows so we could go to the parks and not have to worry about what we were missing. So… we went up to the office today to see if we could move to two premium sites (we were in preferred sites). They were able to move us to the 500 loop which is a premium loop and we now have satellite! :) I will try to remember to get pictures of our sites tomorrow for my campground list.

Today was spent with me wandering around Disney after getting mom settled on her new site. I had to drive to Walmart and buy Samantha a bunch of pants because she didn’t have any. We have been using the AC everyday for who knows how long and now that we are in the middle of sunny Florida… we are using the heat! :) So obviously Samantha couldn’t go around in shorts. The GPS took me a very direct route TO Walmart but for some reason I got all kinds of lost getting back. After we finally made it back Samantha and I finished her second set of tests for school and then Nathan decided to take the kids to the playground. Here are 3 pictures from the playground.

After the playground we came back and had dinner than went to the Sing-A-Long that is by the fire. We were planning on staying for the movie but I was too cold. Keep in mind I had a long sleeved shirt and a sweatshirt over it! I hope it warms up a little while we are here. I wanted to try out the pools and although I know they are heated I will not be going in them in this weather. Tomorrow Nathan is taking Samantha horse back riding. After lunch I think we will head to whatever park is open late tomorrow… I think it is Epcot.

We checked in to Fort Wilderness on Monday at 2:00. We settled into our sites at the 300 loop. We have never been on that loop before. The sites are nice but we cannot get satellite reception. The kids are happy that Disney has their old cartoon channel back on their cable line up at the site. We told the kids that we were not going to go to parks everyday and that we would not be going to a park on Monday. I cut all of the kid’s hair. Nathan gets his cut the day after Halloween but with the big beard he would look stranger than he does if I cut the rest of his hair. Timmy has been wanting to have his hair spiky so the girl who braided Nathan’s beard told me how to cut it. It worked but I need to get him some stiffer gel because his hair is so thick. Anyways… we looked and the Magic Kingdom had extra hours for the evening so we had dinner and went to the Kingdom to go on a few rides. Here is a picture of our new form of transportation around the campground.

I need to look into getting some battery operated lights for the bikes because it was difficult to see the sidewalks on the ride home plus dangerous because cars can’t see us either. Here is a picture of Nathan (with beard) and Josh on the boat ride over. Also, a picture of Samantha and Timmy with his new haircut.

The lines were great. It was late so it wasn’t hot and the crowd was light. We were able to walk right on to Buzz Lightyear and the Speedway. Here is a picture of mom and Samantha in their car and of Nathan and Timmy in their car.

After the Speedway we started making our way through the rides in Fantasyland. Here are all of the kids on the carousel. Samantha managed to find Cinderella’s horse again.

Next was Dumbo. I took a picture of Nathan and Timmy before the ride started. After I got his picture Nathan took the camera and got a picture of Josh and I since we were behind him.

The last ride before heading home for the night was It’s A Small World. Nathan, the boys and I were in one row and my mom and Samantha were behind us. Here is my mom and Samantha…

The last picture of the night is of one of the light decorations at the park. I love how Disney decorates for each season. This is the first time I have been here around Halloween. I can’t wait to see if the other parks are decorated as well or if it is just the Kingdom because of the Halloween parties…

We were planning on going to Dinosaur World on the way to Disney tomorrow because we thought it was in the middle of the two. However, when we looked it was only 7 miles from where we are so we went there today. It is an outside park where you walk down paths that have lifesize dinosaurs on display with facts about each dinosaur. Timmy loved it. Here are all three kids at the entrance.

One of the first things you encounter is a head that the kids can stand in so it looks like the dinosaur ate you. Nathan decided he had a better idea for Joshua while Samantha was in the back of the dinosaur. Joshua kept yelling, “This not better!!”….

I took pictures of all of the dinosaurs but since they have over 150 on display I cannot put them all up so I am just putting the favorites up. One of Timmy’s favorites is the stegasaurus…

They are in the middle of decorating for Halloween. They apparently have a haunted forest type of event and from what we could see of what they already have up it will be very frightening. We came across this cage and Nathan decided to put the kids in…

This is a picture of an adult and a baby but I don’t remember what kind of dinosaur it was….

This is a Tyrannasaurus Rex. I loved how it shows the size difference between us and the dinosaur. I definitely would not want to see one alive…

These are two pictures of the kids posing with dinosaurs… again I don’t remember what kind. :)

Part of our entrance fee included a fossil dig for the kids. They got to sift through the sand and pick out 3 real fossils each to keep. Here is Timmy and Samantha digging.

The last thing we did was a boneyard where they get to dig and brush to unearth a skeleton. This is all three kids trying to unearth a section of a stegasaurus skeleton.

W ended the day with a LOT of laundry and one last trip to the pool. Although the washers and dryers are not cheap here in comparison with a lot of the places we have been they are cheaper than the ones at Disney so we decided to get all of the laundry caught up before leaving, especially since we had all of the towels dirty between pool time and showers. I have decided that at Disney we will each have ONE towel for pool use that will be hung up to dry after use so we don’t have to continually wash them. Tomorrow we will leave early. Nathan is going to have his beard braided early tomorrow. We found someone who said she can weave extensions into it so we will have it done before going to Disney. This should make for some interesting pictures before Halloween. :)