Focht Family Blog

After a break for lunch and delivering lunch to Nathan we decided to go back to Lansing and take the kids to the science museum since the RV wasn’t back yet. Here is the entrance to the musuem…

This science museum was more like a children’s museum. Everything was hands on. They had a bubble room that all of the kids had fun in. Here is Samantha creating a bubble wall…

Here is Joshua behind the bubble wall blowing into it to create another bubble…

Here is Timmy blowing bubbles…

There was also a large mouth that was teaching about brushing…

Timmy and Josh also found an area where they could record sound effects…

The kids had a lot of fun in Lansing but my mom and I were both extremely tired. It was wonderful to get back to the RV. :)

Our first stop on Monday morning was to the Potter Park Zoo. At the entrance is a large wire bear. The kids wanted a picture of them behind it so it looked like they were inside the bear but you couldn’t see them through the wire so I had to convince them to stand in front of the bear…

Walking around the park were a bunch of peacocks. I had never seen a white peacock before so I had to get a picture…

We also saw a very colorful bird but I have forgotten what type of bird it was…

They had some arctic foxes so I had to get a picture for my mom since that is the name of her truck camper…

My personal favorite was the binturong. I looked at it and knew that someone involved with the Princess Bride movie had to have seen one at a zoo when they were deciding what the ROUS (Rodents Of Unusual Size) looked like. I couldn’t get a good picture of the face but even the face and mannerisms were just like a ROUS…

The last picture that I took at the zoo is of Samantha and Timmy posing in a kangaroo…

Right after this picture an employee of the zoo told us that they had an issue at the back of the park and asked us to go to the front of the park. After the cat that got out of his cage in San Francisco we thought that the issue was an escaped animal so we pretty much ran to the front of the zoo. :) The issue was that they were doing some construction and hit a gas line. Since that could have been just as dangerous I think I am glad that we were done looking at the zoo anyways.

After Indianapolis we drove to Charlotte, Michigan to go to Spartan for service. We figured since we had so many miles on our RV we should have the chassis checked out. They have a special inspection where they go over everything. We also needed an oil change on the engine and the generator. Since our service wasn’t until Monday we used the weekend to unwind a bit. The kids wanted to play with their new cars so they made good use of the big empty parking lot….

Charlotte is only about 30 minutes from Lansing, where I was born, so Sunday we spent some time driving around looking at all the places my parents lived and built. I wanted to drive by Sparrow Hospital since it is still there. It is the hospital that I was born in. Mom says it is a lot bigger than it was back then…

We drove by the student house that my parents managed at Michigan State University but it is now a parking lot for the police station that used to be across the street. Here is a picture of one of the first houses my parents built. It is actually for sale….

Then we drove by an apartment complex that my parents built. Here is a picture of a couple of the buildings…

I think my mom was enjoying the drive down memory lane. That night we went to dinner with old family friends, Al and Dorothy Hitchcock. They are semi retired from a family owned trucking business. My dad used to drive for them way back when. Here is my mom with Al and Dorothy…

Monday morning they took the RV in for service. Everything checked out great. Since I didn’t want the kids to run around crazy in the office my mom and I took them to the zoo and the science museum in Lansing.

The day after Timmy’s birthday Tyce from Natural Solutions took us out on the lake on his boat to have some fun. After taking us on a tour of the lake and the beautiful houses he let the kids try tubing. Here is Samantha preparing for her ride…

She had a great time on that tube and took multiple turns! :) Timmy wasn’t as sure about it so Nathan rode with him….

Nathan rode with Josh as well. Here they are preparing for the ride…

And here they are ON the ride….

Josh didn’t enjoy his ride very much. I think the boys would have enjoyed the ride better if they had ridden together without Nathan. Tyce thought the weight difference between Nathan and the boys was causing the boys to get splashed. After the kids took their rides, Nathan wanted to ride by himself. Tyce increased the speed just a bit….

After tubing Tyce let Timmy take a turn at the wheel…

Then we stopped for snacks and swimming. The kids had fun feeding the ducks…

After snacks it was Josh’s turn to drive…

After Josh got his turn, Nathan decided to try water skiing. Since he hasn’t skied for about 20 years I think he did a great job just getting up…

Of course Tyce made sure Samantha got a chance to drive too….

It was a beautiful day on the lake with perfect weather. Tyce went out of his way to make sure that all of the kids had a great time. The water felt a little too cold to me so I stayed on the boat and took pictures but maybe next year I will have to see if I can still water ski! :)

My little boy is now 7!!! Timmy decided he wanted a Sponge Bob pinata which led him to decide on a Sponge Bob cake. Although Timmy decided he didn’t just want a cake, he wanted cupcakes. Here are the results of my efforts…

Timmy’s day of fun started with Duck Bowling. He always loves to go bowling and I wanted to make it more interesting so I managed to find this. It is played with smaller pins and the balls are about the size of a bocce ball. Here is Timmy holding up one of the balls…

And here is Timmy bowling. They let the kids walk up closer to their target…

After the bowling we went to lunch at Pizza Hut (Timmy’s choice) and then went to the mall. While at the mall the boys managed to talk Nathan into getting remote control cars at RideMakerz. Nathan ended up getting one for himself as well. Here is Timmy holding up his choice of car body…

Here are the boys putting together their new toys…

After the cars were created they each received certificates with personalized license plate stickers and everything is put in a box. These boxes were not exactly light. Here are all of the boys carrying their toys to the car….

Here is Timmy holding up his finished masterpiece…

After the mall we stopped and had dinner at the Mug N’ Bun. I found it on Roadfood and it was also recommended by the man at the bowling alley. They had wonderful root beer that they make there. My mom and I both had root beer floats. Samantha said their hamburgers were great. I got a pork tenderloin sandwich because that is supposed to be one of their big specialties but I found it to be greasy and tasteless. Next time I think I will just get a float! :)

After dinner we headed back to the RV where Timmy had a pinata and presents waiting for him. Nathan rigged a leash to hang the pinata with and removed a plunger from its handle for the stick…

I had Timmy’s presents wrapped and on the dash for almost two weeks before his birthday to torment him. He really wanted a blue and black Nintendo DS but he was convinced that the boxes weren’t big enough for one. He was glad that he was wrong…