Focht Family Blog

We spent the night at Camping World and we were at the Forbidden Gardens when they opened so that we could go on their first tour. While waiting for the tour they have areas with displays of different items that were part of the history of China. The Forbidden Gardens were created by a man who decided his children were not learning enough about the history of China in school.

Here is a picture of Nathan and the kids by a terra cotta horse that was at the entrance.

One of the displays we looked at had examples of the types of architecture used. Here is Samantha in front of one of the examples.

While waiting outside for the tour to start Timmy decided he wanted a picture by one of the miniatures in the gardens.

Once on the tour the first thing they show you is the models of the terra cotta soldiers. Here are some of the full-size models they have.

Here is as big of a picture as I could take of the largest pit they have that is modeled after Emperor Qin’s gravesite. He wanted to have his army with him in the afterlife so they buried him with terra cotta soldiers. Each soldier was unique because each represented a unique soldier.

Here is a close up of one small section of soldiers with horses.

They even had a pit where all of the soldiers and horses were gray. They said when the original site was being excavated they found a section where all of the terra cotta soldiers had been burned. They think that Emperor Qin’s enemies found the burial site, took the weapons and burned the soldiers.

After we went through the area with the pits we went into another area that was a miniature version of the Forbidden City in China. Here are two of my favorite pictures of this area.

After the Forbidden Gardens we drove to San Antonio and checked into the Blazing Star RV Resort. It is a really nice park with paved sites and a heated pool. However, someone forgot to tell God that Texas is supposed to be hot because right now it is a bit chilly. We took a walk with Misty and took the kids to the playground to get rid of some energy. Tomorrow we are going to go to Sea World because Samantha has been wanting to go to one. The RV park has a shuttle that goes to Sea World but I think we will just take the RV. Monday will be spent downtown going to the Alamo, the River Walk and maybe the Children’s Museum. Tuesday and Wednesday will be at Caverns. We check out of San Antonio on Wednesday and will start heading towards San Diego.

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.

Thursday morning we woke up and walked to the Wild Animal Park. It is in the same park that the campground is in. They have quite a few animals for a small zoo. My favorite section was the lemurs that they have free-roaming together. Unfortunately my camera doesn’t zoom in enough for me to get a really good shot of them. The first few animals that I was able to get good shots of were the flamingos and the black rhino.

Next we found the zebras and Timmy wanted to have his picture taken standing on a turtle bench.

Next we found Bison or Buffalo, where we all reminisced about seeing two Buffalo heads in the back of a pickup while going out to dinner in Indiana….

The last animals we looked at were the cheetahs. They were so beautiful. There were 4 of them. I was able to get a picture of the two that were layng down next to each other.

After going through the park we went by the playground again for a few minutes and left a little before 12:00. We are now driving into Dothan, AL and are planning on being in LA by tonight. Stay tuned for more adventures…..

Our first stop was in Leesburg, GA to pick up a camera for the back of mom’s trailer that Nathan bought on Ebay. Then we headed to Albany, GA where we checked in at Chehaw Park. We were in Albany visiting one of Nathan’s customers, Harold and Leslie from Outdoor Headquarters. They are one of those couples that you feel like you have known forever. I have only had the pleasure of meeting them twice but I have thoroughly enjoyed both visits.

I took the kids over to the big playground for the afternoon. The first picture is of Joshua driving a train and Samantha is his passenger. The second is of Timmy sitting at the top of a slide. The last one is of grandma being silly with Samantha and Timmy. I was trying to get Josh to stand on one of the blocks but he was being temperamental yesterday.

After playing for awhile we went back to the RV to get ready for dinner. While we were getting ready Nathan installed the camera on the back of mom’s trailer where he had already run the wires last month. Then before dinner we went on a search for groceries since we were out of chocolate milk, which is a major issue in this household. We had passed a nice Winn-Dixie on our way in but Nathan said he found a Harvey’s that was closer. The Harvey’s he found was very small and had a very bad selection. I cleaned out all of their chocolate milk and got a few other things but I still need to find a better store. Maybe tonight we will boondock at a Walmart! :)

After groceries we drove to the country club and had a wonderful meal with Harold and Leslie. The owner of the club had two children ages 8 and 5 and they had their new Wii there. He said our kids could play with them after they had eaten. The kids had a lot of fun because they had never seen a Wii before. It is a new video game system where you actually have to move, like in tennis you swing your arm like you have a racquet. This kept the kids well entertained. Joshua and Timmy decided they wanted to go back to the RV so mom volunteered to take them. Samantha stayed with us and played some more. She got very good at the bowling. We got back at 9:58 and the gate was already closed to the park. Thankfully the lady I checked in with gave me a code but there was a sign saying that it wouldn’t work after 10:00 so we were extremely close. While we were driving in we had a deer run in front of us and then we noticed two more deer standing in the field watching us. We stopped and slowly opened the door and shone the flashlight on them so the kids could see them. They thought that was really cool.

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….