Focht Family Blog

We went to the East Coast FOTR Rally this year so we could meet other families traveling like we do. I only wish that my back had been feeling better so that I could have socialized more. The kids had a lot of fun getting to meet the other kids and playing with them. One of their favorite spots of the weekend was a big tree that was great for climbing. Here are a couple of pictures of my little monkeys in the tree….

They had a lot of activities planned for the kids. The first day we were there they had a science activity where they were making slime. Here is Samantha making slime with one of her new friends…

Here are Timmy and Josh checking out a soda bottle for some reason, I think it involved Mentos…

Later, all of the kids took off with Nerf guns. Here are Timmy and Josh playing with borrowed guns…

Nathan spent most of his time outside socializing. I think he enjoyed talking to all of the other families. Here is Nathan talking to a man who owns a campground in NY. They spend the winter traveling while the campground is closed…

Nathan decided to get himself a new toy for the rally. He bought an inflatable movie screen and sound system so that we can have some Focht Family movie nights this summer…

Of course he found out it is good for more than just movies so he is planning on some Wii Tournaments for the next company camping trip. Here is Nathan and one of the other dads sitting in their chairs playing games on the Wii…

On January 14th Joshua turned 5! The night before we decided to go to the buffet at Fort Wilderness because I didn’t feel like cooking since my back was still out. The waitress started his celebration out…

I cheated this year and let Publix make him his birthday cake. Here is the cake that Joshua picked out…

Here is Joshua blowing out his candle…

Joshua chose to have lunch at the Sci-Fi restaurant at Hollywood Studios for his birthday so we went to Hollywood Studios for his birthday and then came back and had dinner and cake at the RV. We left the day after Joshua’s birthday and drove to Cape Canaveral for a Families On The Road rally so the kids could meet other kids that live like they do.

Nathan and I did it! We woke up at 2:30 AM to be on a bus by 3:00!! The temperature was low 30’s and felt colder. On top of the cold weather it rained the whole time. It was more of a sleet at that temperature and I think at 5:00 I even saw some snow! Nathan moved his corral placement up so he started 20 minutes before I did. Nathan finished in just over 2 hours. Here is a picture that the photographers took of him…

I didn’t fare quite as well. It took me just over 4 hours! I came in limping and crying but I made it! Here is one of the pictures that they got of me…

Here is a picture of the medal that we got for finishing…

Unfortunately my back went out 3 days later. I am not sure why but I am guessing it has to do with muscle fatigue from the half marathon. Other than that the only thing we suffered were some sore muscles and some blisters. Nathan is thinking of signing up for the marathon next year. If he does, I told my mom that I would do the half marathon again if she does it with me. The hardest part of the half marathon for me was the isolation of it. Nathan is still running and he runs 10-12 miles 3 times a week so I think he will probably have no problems running the marathon next year.

Well… I was hoping for warm Florida weather for a couple of weeks so that the kids could have a little more pool time. However, what we got was….

Who would have thought that you would need ski jackets for Florida?? We still had fun and managed a few “firsts” for us. One of the days that we were at Magic Kingdom we stumbled upon an employee that was “painting” characters on the ground with water and a broom. It was amazing. Here is his Tigger…

Joshua wanted some more autographs so we stood in a VERY long line to get pictures of the most popular ones. Here is their picture with Minnie Mouse…

One of the things that Samantha wanted to do was to wake up Tinkerbell. I had read in a book that if you are the first person in Tinkerbell’s Treasures that you can wake her up. Here is Samantha ringing the bell to wake her up…

Here is Tinkerbell after she woke up…

Joshua wanted to get an autograph from Jasmine when we saw her and Aladdin. Here are the kids with them…

Joshua was quite taken by Jasmine…

She was also taken with him… she gave him a token of her affections before he left…

Our first stop at Animal Kingdom was at A Bug’s Life. I do not like this show because spiders come down over the audience. Here is Josh sitting on Barbara’s lap. They have their “bug eyes” on and are ready for the show…

Next was the Dinosaur ride. This is another one that I don’t like. I wish I had scanned the picture from this ride because Barbara looks like she is about to jump out of the ride and Josh is tucked into my lap and I am ducked down over him so that neither of us can see the ride. I have no desire to see HUGE carnivorous dinosaurs trying to eat me! Here is Josh while we were waiting in line on Uncle Jim’s shoulders pulling on the tongue of a dinosaur…

After Dinosaur Samantha and Alex wanted to go on the Primeval Whirl. Josh is still too little for this one so we sat out and ate some popcorn and took pictures. Here is Nathan, Samantha, and Alex in their car…

And here is Christina and Bridgette in their car…

I didn’t get the timing right to get Nathan’s car on the slide down the hill but I managed to get a picture of Christina and Bridgette…

After Animal Kingdom we headed back to Wilderness Lodge to have dinner at the Whispering Canyon. It was a great meal but I was ready to be home with my sick kid. We sent Josh over to my mom’s that night so that Timmy could stay home and feel more comfortable. Thursday was pack up and leave time. Timmy threw up again in the morning but I think it was because he drank some Coke a little too quickly. He was all better by lunch and ended up eating a few pieces of bacon! :)

I would like to say that the drive home was uneventful but it wasn’t. Everyone left before us and we were planning on getting home by 5:00 and then we were going to go to Christmas Eve Mass at 6:00 followed by dinner at Ron and Barb’s house. However…. Ron and Barb got a flat tire on their way home. We caught up with them and Nathan decided that I should drive Barbara and Christina back with me and he would stay with his dad and wait for the tire service to show up. When we were getting close to Statesboro Vicki had caught up with us (she had been visiting friends) and so we stopped at a gas station and Barbara and Christina rode back to Barbara’s house with Vicki. This ended up being a good thing. We had been planning on me dropping the camper off of the truck and giving Barbara the truck to drive back. The Blue Ox tow bar hasn’t been used in a few months because we have been driving separate (Nathan’s dad took our trailer so we didn’t have to drive both vehicles back from Disney). I had to use the hammer to get the truck off of the RV and it wasn’t a quick task at all. Nathan ended up getting home at 7:30 and we had dinner at Ron and Barbara’s at 8:00 so we missed church. There was another Mass at 10:00 but that was too late for all of us after the day we had so Christmas didn’t quite feel like Christmas to me because we didn’t attend church but it is more important that we all made it back safe and sound.