Focht Family Blog

From Colorado we drove to Iowa. We had already called a campground that we had sites at but when we called again they said they were covered in ice and we wouldn’t be able to get in. We located a campground in a small town named Albia. It was called Indian Hills and is part of a motel. It was quite nice. They gave you a coupon for two drinks per site and 10% off at the restaurant. So we went to their restuarant for dinner and with all of the coupons it was pretty inexpensive.

The next morning Nathan went to work at one of his customer’s offices, Sinclair Interational. While he worked, my mom and I went back to the restaurant for lunch and then I took the kids to the indoor pool and jacuzzi that is with the hotel. After swimming we used their shower room and everyone took showers and dressed in dry, warm clothes before heading back to the RV for some Wii Fit play time.

We stayed at some pretty campgrounds on this part of the trip so I thought I would share a few pictures. The first two are of the campground in Minnesota, Dakotah Meadows. It is at an Indian Casino.

After leaving Minnesota we spent a week in Iowa at a nice campground on the river called Upper Iowa Resort and Rentals. They are directly on the Upper Iowa River and they are nestled in a valley so this was truly camping. We had no cell phones, no internet, very little satellite TV and no antennae TV. It was a very nice, quiet campground and we caught up on a lot of reading. We also finished school and started our book burnings. Here is a view of the river across from our site.

We found some interesting animal tracks by a fallen tree at the edge of the river. Not sure what made them, though.

Samantha decided it was very interesting that the flowers that grew by the river were much bigger then the flowers growing by the campsites. Here is Samantha showing the difference and then a picture of all three of the children with the flowers.

Andrea had her biopsy today. They were able to get enough without going through her back, although Tim said they had to spread her ribs. She will stay tonight at the hospital. The good news is that they said at first look it looked benign. They won’t know for sure until Friday so keep the prayers coming.

We have been without phone or internet for the last few days. We were staying at a campground on the Upper Iowa river and it is down in a valley. This was a weekend of firsts. We survived our first year of homeschooling!! Samantha is officially done with 3rd grade. 4th grade has already been shipped and is waiting for us in NY so she has off from school until July 15th. Timmy is anxious to start Kindergarten as well. This weekend we had a book burning. As we finished subjects we put the books into a pile that was used as firestarter for the campfires. :)

We also had the first canoe trip with the kids. We rented two canoes and the owners of the campground dropped us at a point at the river that is about 2 1/2 hours from the campground. We had one canoe with girls in it and one for the boys. Nobody fell in! At one point Nathan had to drag Joshua in because he fell asleep hanging over the edge. Both of the boys were pretty wet at the end just from putting their arms over the sides but it was a fun experience and we saw lots of bald eagles flying over the river. I didn’t take the camera with me because I was afraid it would end up in the water but I will try to catch up with what pictures I have tonight or tomorrow. :)