Focht Family Blog

I was sick yesterday so I will use that as my excuse. I forgot to add that after we went to the caverns yesterday we drove to one of Nathan’s customers, Salsa Express. The company is situated on a 300 acre ranch that had an abundance of wild life that was varied. We saw deer and some kind of African antelope. It was very interesting. The kids were given a tour and they got to pick eggs out of the chicken nests. They also were able to pet a chicken. The kids had a lot of fun and Samantha was overjoyed by the experience.

Today has been spent on the road. We left the Walmart at Fort Stockton about 10:00 and stopped in El Paso to get the dogs groomed. I had to take a picture of Punch. Usually they put bandannas around their necks but apparently they felt Punch was a bit more froo-froo.

During our driving today the kids were getting a bit silly. Samantha put all of her doll’s knitted caps on Josh and he was just too funny.

The last picture I took today was of Mexico. We are on I-10 and there is a section close to El Paso where you can literally see the Mexico border. We have seen a lot of Border Patrol cars today.

I believe Nathan said that tomorrow we will be going to a ghost town on our way to Tombstone.

We finally made it to Louisiana! Timmy has been very upset that we had a missing state on our map in the middle of all of the other states. We came into Louisiana last night and had dinner with one of my “Garnet sisters”. When I was pregnant with Josh, I started posting on Babycenter with a group of girls that were all due within the same week. Eventually we split off and formed a group on yahoo and we have been typing to each other for 3 1/2 years. I am going to try to meet them if I am near any of them. My first picture is of Lanette with her two children, Caroline and Carson with me and our three.

After we had dinner we drove for about an hour to a Cabela’s because they have RV parking and we were curious about them and wanted to walk around the store. They opened at 8:00 and we went in with the kids and walked all around. The animals displayed were nothing short of artistry on the taxidermist part. They had a section that was just African animals and had it set up so they looked like they were doing things that were natural for them. There was even an elephant and a white rhino. Here is a picture of a lioness attacking her prey.

There was another area that had bears and mountain type animals. One of my favorites was the timber wolf. I have always loved wolves.

Here are two pictures I took that I just can’t believe they were able to do. The goat is not touching anything but the bear’s mouth. The mountain lion is not touching anything but the deer’s back (with one paw).

And finally… before leaving the parking lot we had to put our new sticker on….

We drove through Houston today. We were trying to get to the Forbidden Gardens in time for the last tour but we were a little late. We decided to park for the night at Camping World and we will go on the first tour in the morning before heading to San Antonio. While here, Nathan had my mom buy her tube that she wanted so that she could have a septic hose of her own again. So here is Nathan installing it in the parking lot with his little helper.

Usually the tradition of Christmas is that Christmas Eve we go to Nathan’s parents for lasagna and then Christmas Day they come over to our house to watch the kids open their gifts, then we go to their house for more presents and also a big dinner. This year Nathan’s parents were leaving for New York the day after Christmas so everything was moved up a day except presents.

Christmas Eve we went to their house for the big dinner. After dinner we all went to mass together. While we were in church Santa snuck into the RV and left Christmas pajamas for everyone on their beds, like he does every year. This year it was blue pajamas with penguins for the girls, grandma included. Nathan got some green flannel pants with moose on them and a green shirt. The boys got green and cream pajamas that had moose and penguins on them.

After we all got in our pajamas Nathan insisted I open my gift from him that night. It was a new video camera that is much nicer than my current one. So we used it to video tape the kids and me setting cookies and tea out for Santa with apple slices for the reindeer. Then everyone yawns for the camera and is sent to bed. After reading all of our Christmas stories the kids were finally in bed by 10:00! The grandparents were planning on being at the RV at 7:00 because we figured the kids would wake early. Here is what they woke up to.

After we unwrapped everything it was time for breakfast. I was tired of all of the years that I have spent hours preparing wonderful breakfast meals that nobody eats so I offered to take everyone to Huddle House. Nathan’s parents declined and said we would just see them later at their house. The rest of us headed to Huddle House where they had a few employees decide they didn’t want to work on Christmas so they were so short staffed that the lady taking our order was also cooking our breakfast. She had a wonderful spirit and didn’t let it bother her. While we were there she called her daughter and had her come in to help.

After breakfast we went to Nathan’s parents house where the kids had lots more presents to open. After awhile mom decided she wanted to get laundry done before we hit the road so I drove her back and while she did the laundry, I cleaned and put away all of the toys that were in the RV. After that we returned to Nathan’s parents where we played a game of Disney Scene It (one of Samantha’s gifts from Santa). Then we said our goodbyes and left to get everything ready for leaving.

I came back to the RV and rearranged toys. We put some of the older toys in a bag under mom’s bed so they can have them if they want them but it made room for the new ones. After a good night’s rest we woke the next morning to pack everything up and hit the road….

A couple of days before Christmas I woke up to find that Timmy had rolled out of his bed and was snuggled with Josh on Josh’s bed. I just had to get a picture.

I think all the excitement was catching up with them.

Catching up…

Last week we had the pleasure of having some friends we met in Indiana at Newmar stay a night at the campground in Statesboro to visit with us. Their names are Scott and Nancy and we really have enjoyed the times we have been able to spend chatting with them.

Friday we drove to Magnolia Springs and spent the weekend camping out with Nathan’s company for a Winter Weekend. We had a great time and ate a LOT of food! The whole weekend was pretty much eating and campfires! Everyone did a 5 mile hike on Saturday but I stayed at the RV because I knew the kids wouldn’t be able to walk that far. However, on Friday we went out to the local Aquarium and saw an alligator on the banks where we were crossing. Then my mom took Samantha and Timmy on a 1.2 mile hike with Aunt Chris (she works for Nathan) and Bridgette (Joshua was napping) and while on the walk they saw 2 alligators! The funny thing was that Chris had let her dog go swimming that morning because she thought the alligators would be hibernating. Thankfully her dog is okay.

We left Magnolia Springs at 12:00. We stopped in Statesboro to drop off some things from the weekend and had lunch with Nathan’s parents. we then stopped in Brunswick and visited with Scott and Nancy at a parking lot on our way through. They winter in Jekyll Island and happened to be in town as we were passing by. We have a lively discussion on religious differences between denominations. Scott and Nancy are Mennonite and we are Catholic.

We left Brunswick at 7:00 and we are expecting to be at Fort Wilderness at 11:30 to check-in and then we will hit one of the parks tomorrow after breakfast. I will take the camera and get some pictures tomorrow of wherever we are. :)