Focht Family Blog

Thursday my mother-in-law called to let us know there were large storms with tornadoes around Indianapolis. We told her not to worry because we were well north of that in a little town called Nappanee. Well…. wouldn’t you know that Thursday night the storms were knocking at our door. We were watching the local news and when we saw a large storm cell with circulation coming towards us we left the RV and went in search of the local storm shelter. We got to the church but it was locked. We drove to the fire station and they said that they were just heading to the church to open it. We were the first ones in the basement.

They had a toy room for the kids so they were playing in there and were happy until we heard the words… tornado on the ground! We didn’t have any more information than that and then they lost power so the lights all went out. We sat for awhile until they said the storm cell had past us. We decided to go back to the RV at least temporarily because I was starting to have an asthma attack from all of the animals that were brought into the shelter. Once back at the RV we found out that there was one more storm cell heading for us but it only had hail in it so we stayed put.

The next morning we got up early in case they were going to come and get the RV for service. There were a few RV’s there that woke up and had no idea what had happened the night before. There was no damage at Newmar but down the street a couple of miles there was quite a bit of damage. They had a boil water order and a state of emergency for the town the next day. The weather service determined that the tornado that hit was a F3 and it left a path of about 15 miles of damage.

Embrace the Pace is the motto for Nappanee, Indiana. I have been taking this motto to heart the last two weeks and have not been on here to update on our doings. We arrived in Nappanee last Saturday. We have been here ever since getting small repairs done on the RV. I cannot say enough nice things about the employees at Newmar. The only bad thing has been the early morning wake-up calls. They come and get the RV at 6:00 AM and we have to be out until about 2:00-3:00 PM.

Since being here we have net a nice Amish man who has been working on our coach. He is the one who comes and gets it every morning. He gave us a card for a bookstore that his wife and him were opening last weekend so on Saturday we went to their farm and spent quite a bit at their bookstore, Little Nook Bookstore. It was a very nice, well-stocked store and we bought a couple of books for each kid plus some puzzles and some hand-carved wooden trains for each of the boys. Next we went to the Farmers Market which is a huge wooden barn looking building that was all constructed by hand. AMAZING building!! Then we went to a corn maze that was really fun!! Nathan pulled all of the kids behind him in a cart that they supplied so he was a bit tired when we were done. It was 10 acres of corn.

Last night we were at the Inn at Amish Acres because our RV was being painted so they couldn’t give it back to us last night. During the day we walked over to Amish Acres and fed a bull that was in a fence between the two. Other than lack of sleep we have had a wonderful time here and have had the opportunities to socialize with other Newmar owners.

I forgot the camera again! I need to just keep it in my purse or something. We went to Connor Prairie on Friday and Nathan came with us. The kids had a lot of fun. It is more condensed than Williamsburg and spans more time periods. It is also more interactive for the kids so I think they enjoyed it more. They have a Indian camp where you can trade with the fur trader (we got there too late) but we were still able to see all of the different pelts and talk to them as to what they consider worth trading for. Also in the Indian camp were two different shelters and the kids could try to grind corn using a large mortar and pestle type container.

Next they had a prairie town that was set in 1836. We were able to walk through all of the houses and learn about how different careers lived and worked. They also had a barn where the kids could interact with different animals. They had goats, sheep, baby chicks, a cow and a donkey. Josh and Timmy especially liked this area. They had an opportunity to make beeswax candles. Unfortunately the boys got bored before theirs were done so Nathan ended up having to finish theirs while I took them back to the barn. :)

They also had another settlement that was based in 1886. At the farm in this area the kids could help with some of the chores. Josh was getting tired by this point but Timmy and Samantha both took turns milking a cow! :)

We are winding up our visit in Indiana tonight. We just met another family two sites over tonight that have 3 kids and also home-school. The kids have been having a lot of fun playing with them tonight. We will leave in the morning and will try to do something fun tomorrow for Timmy’s birthday. We will Walmart camp tomorrow night and then Tuesday we will be in Pennsylvania for a week so we can go to Hershey next weekend.

This is my last update before I go to bed. I think I am finally caught up on the blog and I learned how to resize the photos so it shouldn’t take so long to load the blog now. I also set it so it only shows the most recent 5 posts to aid in load time. Anyway, we are in Indianapolis until Monday morning. We will be going on a field trip on Friday to a place called Connor Prairie where the kids can experience life from the frontier days. I will post with pictures soon after. Tonight we went bowling for Timmy’s birthday. His birthday is on Monday and I asked him what he wanted to do and he said go bowling. So I looked for a local lane and they had a family deal on Wednesday so we went tonight. I will bake him a cake and take him out for a special meal on Monday to celebrate his actual day. Hope everyone enjoys catching up with our adventures.

Saturday we took the kids to the Indianapolis Children’s Museum before heading out of town. This was a 5 story museum that had interactive parts throughout. One of the first spots the kids stopped at was an area where you can see how people make models of dinosaurs. They had a station where clay was set out and had examples for you to try to copy. Here is Nathan sitting with Josh helping him, Samantha and Timmy and  Samantha’s finished project.

Next was a station where they could draw over a skeleton of a dinosaur and also an area where you can run crayons over an impression of leaves or dinosaurs. Here is Timmy’s finished drawing, Josh making his abstract work and Grandma Patti’s crayon work.

Here is a picture of the kids playing in a dinosaur nest with the baby dinosaurs.

Next we went through a mummy exhibit where there was a real mummy on display and lots of information on how mummies are made, a few of those tidbits were a bit gross. Then they showed how they took the x-rays and developed how they think their mummy would have looked when she was alive. At the end there are some blocks where the kids can build her town. Here are the kids creating her town.

Down on the lower level of the museum they have a dinosphere where you step back into time where they have skeletons of dinosaurs and information on how they lived. Among the interactive places for the kids in this area there was an area where they can pretend to dig up dinosaur bones. They get to put on eye gear and take brushes and picks into the pit to find the bones. They also had an area where they can dress like dinosaurs and take care of the eggs in the nest.

We then drove to a place called Amishville (Amishville.com) to camp for a few days near Fort Wayne. We will be taking a tour at the Fleetwood plant tomorrow afternoon and a tour at a chocolate factory on Tuesday morning before heading to Cleveland to meet up with Nathan’s parents. Stay tuned…..