Focht Family Blog

We were planning on going to Dinosaur World on the way to Disney tomorrow because we thought it was in the middle of the two. However, when we looked it was only 7 miles from where we are so we went there today. It is an outside park where you walk down paths that have lifesize dinosaurs on display with facts about each dinosaur. Timmy loved it. Here are all three kids at the entrance.

One of the first things you encounter is a head that the kids can stand in so it looks like the dinosaur ate you. Nathan decided he had a better idea for Joshua while Samantha was in the back of the dinosaur. Joshua kept yelling, “This not better!!”….

I took pictures of all of the dinosaurs but since they have over 150 on display I cannot put them all up so I am just putting the favorites up. One of Timmy’s favorites is the stegasaurus…

They are in the middle of decorating for Halloween. They apparently have a haunted forest type of event and from what we could see of what they already have up it will be very frightening. We came across this cage and Nathan decided to put the kids in…

This is a picture of an adult and a baby but I don’t remember what kind of dinosaur it was….

This is a Tyrannasaurus Rex. I loved how it shows the size difference between us and the dinosaur. I definitely would not want to see one alive…

These are two pictures of the kids posing with dinosaurs… again I don’t remember what kind. :)

Part of our entrance fee included a fossil dig for the kids. They got to sift through the sand and pick out 3 real fossils each to keep. Here is Timmy and Samantha digging.

The last thing we did was a boneyard where they get to dig and brush to unearth a skeleton. This is all three kids trying to unearth a section of a stegasaurus skeleton.

W ended the day with a LOT of laundry and one last trip to the pool. Although the washers and dryers are not cheap here in comparison with a lot of the places we have been they are cheaper than the ones at Disney so we decided to get all of the laundry caught up before leaving, especially since we had all of the towels dirty between pool time and showers. I have decided that at Disney we will each have ONE towel for pool use that will be hung up to dry after use so we don’t have to continually wash them. Tomorrow we will leave early. Nathan is going to have his beard braided early tomorrow. We found someone who said she can weave extensions into it so we will have it done before going to Disney. This should make for some interesting pictures before Halloween. :)

Saturday was spent at the zoo. They had a lot of beautiful animals. The giraffes were very interesting. They had a feeding station where you could buy crackers to feed a giraffe. We did not feed them but we did go up to the station so we could see the giraffe’s head up close. However, after that we were walking by some other giraffes and Nathan noticed that one of the giraffes was black instead of orange. I had never seen a black giraffe so I had to take a picture.

The next animal that I was able to get a good picture of was a Siberian tiger? I think that is what kind of tiger it was. Anyways it was licking something off of a rock so it was crouched down and I took this picture just as he looked up.

Timmy likes snakes so we went in to look at the pythons. Nathan convinced Samantha and Timmy to sit by the python’s head….

The next animals that we spent quite awhile watching were the chimpanzees. We were trying to decide if the one chimpanzee was a girl or a boy when one of the employees came up and gave us an education about estrus pouches. Apparently she was a girl. The whole time we were there she was picking at herself and scratching but I managed to get a good picture of her from the front as we were leaving.

I love to watch animals that are playing. We found a group of lemurs that were wrestling and I managed to get a decent picture of them…

My favorite animal is the wolf. They had two red wolves and most of the time they stay out of sight. While we were there a police siren could be heard nearby. The male came out with his ears at attention to listen to the siren. Both wolves were beautiful.

Samantha wanted to see some flamingos. We told her since we were at a zoo in Florida we were pretty sure there were flamingos….

We love to see the river otters when they are out and playing. This otter seemed to enjoy the kids playing with him. He kept taking laps and would swim right across where the kids were standing on each lap.

Near the otters there was a stingray pool where you could touch them as they swam by. Here is Samantha touching one.

The last animal we had to make sure we saw before leaving was the meerkat. Timmy loves watching them and Nathan seemed to enjoy watching them as well. Here is one of the groups of meerkats.

We had a fun time and my mom’s college roomate, Esther, came with us. After the zoo we went to lunch with Esther and then came home to go swimming.

Tuesday we took the kids to the science museum. We were going to go to the children’s museum but it is closed because they are building a new one. The science museum had a section that was all hands on for the kids so we spent most of the time there. One of the first things that Samantha noticed was a section that was like a spider web. You chose a color and hooked yourself on to the starting point and then had to weave yourself through the web to follow your color. We all gave it a try and it was really fun. Here is Samantha, the boys and Nathan.

Timmy found a dinosaur that needed a dentist. Since he is currently very interested in dinosaurs he was thrilled. Here are Timmy and Joshua helping to put the teeth back in his mouth.

The dinosaur showed his appreciation….

In another area Nathan found some gears and gave Joshua a spin…

Samantha decided to play Cleopatra…

My mom came with us and decided to take a rest on a bed of nails while there….

After the childs section we walked around a section that had to do with natural disasters and showing you how to avoid damage. Nathan, Samantha, Josh and I all got into a wind booth that simulated hurricane winds. The winds got up to 78 miles an hour. It is amazing how painful your hair is at that speed. Not to mention how tangled it is once you get out of it. :) We all had a great time. Tomorrow we are taking the kids to the Tampa Zoo.

Kinsey Family Farm is the name of the Christmas Tree farm that my brother’s family goes to every year. In the fall, they have pumpkins of every shape, size, and color for sale. They also give hay rides out to a catfish pond where you can feed the fish. The other fun thing they offer is an apple cannon.

Today we went with my sister-in-law, her two girls and also my friend Celeste and her kids (they had off from school today). Both Andrea and Celeste also invited friends to join us. Here are some pictures of everyone on the hay ride.

Here is a picture of Nathan helping Josh feed the catfish. The catfish were huge and I tried to get a good picture of them as they came up for the food but they were quicker than my camera. :)

After we got back from the hay ride and fish feeding we went to the apple cannon. We had so much fun that I ended up getting more tickets for the cannon. Samantha managed to hit one of the smaller targets so hard that it spun around the pole. Nathan was teasing me as I went up for my last turn so I made sure I was concentrating on my aiming and managed to hit the same target as Samantha. The funniest part of the cannon is that past the targets is a field with cows and there was one cow that would wait by the gate for apples that came bouncing across so it could have a snack. :)

Here are pictures of each of the kids and Nathan aiming the cannon.

Stars and Strikes is the name of the bowling alley in Cumming, GA where we had Timmy’s bowling party. We rented two lanes for an hour. One for the adults, one for the kids. My brother came with his wife and their two girls and one of my friends from Savannah that now lives here came with her two kids. We arrived a bit early because we weren’t sure how long it would take to get three kids and two pans of cupcakes into the truck. While we waited for the others to arrive I bought the kids tokens for games. Here is Joshua driving on some game and Timmy and Samantha playing air hockey.

After everyone arrived we settled into our lanes. We ordered some pizza and cokes for the kids and adults to enjoy in between turns. Here are the boys at one table… Timmy, Josh, and Tommy.

My mom and Celeste sat behind the action guarding the cupcakes and chatting…

Celeste is my friend from Savannah. Her kids are Tommy and Isabella. Isabella went to school with Samantha so that is how we know each other. The girls are always glad to see each other. Here is Isabella and Samantha playing with my brother’s youngest, Meghan.

After bowling we sat everyone down for cupcakes. These were the last of Timmy’s Halloween themed requests. They are supposed to be wizard hats.

The last picture I took of the party is Timmy trying to carry the present that Tommy and Isabella brought him. I think the box was a little too big for him to handle by himself. :)

Since we will be here for a week and Celeste’s kids have off school on Friday we have already made plans that we will go to the pumpkin patch on Friday.