Focht Family Blog

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. :)

After we left Stone Mountain we went to Cumming to visit my brother and his family. On Monday night we went out to dinner with some of our friends from college. We hadn’t seen some of them since our wedding! We had a wonderful time. The waiter took a picture of all of us at the table and since Roy was trying to hide behind his wife, I also included a picture of just Roy and his wife Jennifer.

We stayed for the 3 nights in Atlanta at Twin Lakes RV Park. When I called to make the reservations, he apologized because he didn’t have any more full hookup sites left so we only had electric and water. Here is a picture I took of what was directly behind the RV. Do you think we had a bad spot????

We are now back in Statesboro. I will try to keep updates coming if we do anything of interest. The next trip we have planned is Disney in December!

After Stone Mountain we started driving towards Lake Lanier to drive through the lights. My brother and his family were going to join us but it was getting late and he and his girls were under the weather. We stopped at Chick-Fil-A (kid’s favorite) for dinner and then drove on. I LOVED being able to ride in the RV to look at the lights. The only thing that would have made it better would have been some Christmas music playing. Although when we went through the lights of the 12 Days of Christmas we sang the song until Misty started barking at us (not sure why?) :)

I opened my window and hung out of it to take pictures of some of our favorite light displays. Here are two Wizard of Oz displays. The first is of the tornado and the second is of Emerald City with the witch flying around it.

Next was a beautiful wreath and candles that Nathan stopped by so I could get a better picture.

Then there was a cute gingerbread house…

The last picture is one of a candy cane factory….

This prompted a discussion of whether or not anyone still makes candy canes by hand. Then that night, Nathan and I watched a show that showed a candy store that does tours in Denver that makes old-fashioned candies by hand including candy canes, so that will definitely be a stop when we go through Colorado.

Once we were off the ride, we spent the rest of the day walking around the Christmas village. The first two pictures are of the Stone Mountain carving and one of the Grist Mill that we saw while Timmy was driving the duck.

While in the village we found an area where the kids could decorate cookies and make some crafts.

After the crafts we went to a country Christmas show, a train ride and also the Polar Express 4-D show. When we got out of the Polar Express it was dark and the nightly parade was starting. Here is a picture of the Coca-Cola bear (sponsor), Bob & Larry (Veggie Tales), and one of Santa.

Next post will be the lights at Lake Lanier…..

Once we got down the mountain, we found out that we had to walk another mile to get to the Duck Ride. The ducks are the vehicles that they used in the military that can drive on the road or in the water. As you get on the ride, they hand everyone a duck quacker to blow on and for a souvenir (yay). Here is Bridgette trying to teach Joshua how to make noise.

And pictures of everyone else with their quackers….

After the duck landed in the water each child was given the opportunity to drive. Josh was so focused on his driving that he wouldn’t turn to look at the camera.

The rest of Stone Mountain is on its way…..