Focht Family Blog

Misty started to get grumpy a couple of weeks ago and would just give us an occasional yip of that hurt, leave me alone. At the rally it was getting to the point that she was snipping more and would cry out in pain while she was getting up. We called her breeder to see what she thought and we found out that 3 of her siblings have auto immune issues so we were afraid that she might have something like that since she also has a problem with her breath getting bad within 6 months of a teeth cleaning.

We took her to our old vet in Pooler and she drew some blood. Upon physical exam all that she saw was some arthritis. Her blood turned out perfect and the vet gave us some medicine that would help with the pain and swelling from the arthritis. After two days she seems to be back to her old self. She is playing again and she hasn’t cried out at all in the last two days so I guess she is just dealing with arthritis. We are now trying to find someone who can clean her teeth. We wanted to get her the new vaccine that is supposed to help with bacteria in the mouth and I cannot find any vets in Savannah that have it. Our vet said she could get it for us but we would have to buy the whole tray of 25 shots and she will only need 2 shots. I called my brother and got the name of his vet in Atlanta. They have the vaccine so we can get the shot there but they want a lot more money to clean the teeth.

Our vet is already booked for surgeries next week so maybe I will call and see if they can just clean her teeth in Atlanta without doing all of the fluoride treatments and coating her teeth with extra. They said that we could just get the vaccine from them so if I can find someone to clean her teeth around here next week we will do that and then arrange for her to get the vaccine in Atlanta.

Other than that not much is happening. We are in Statesboro this week and next. We will spend Easter with Nathan’s parents. I did get rid of our old comforter yesterday. It was getting worn looking. I found a nice set on sale at JC Penneys. It wasn’t the color I would have chosen but I am stuck with the fabrics on my windows and headboard so this is what we found to go with them.

Well… now I am caught up. We took the kids to see Horton Hears a Who this afternoon. It was a cute movie although Nathan felt it would have been better if it were only 30 minutes long. Tomorrow we will be doing an egg hunt at Nathan’s parents house and then Sunday we will celebrate Easter with them.

We decided now that we are fulltimers that we would have to do at least one rally to see what they were all about. This is The Rally and it is held once a year on alternating coasts. We checked in at 7:00 and parked. We were told that there were almost 4,000 RVs parked for the rally plus all of the ones that dealers brought for people to look at. Nathan took a picture on top of our roof overlooking our parking lot. We were in parking lot 2. There were 5 lots all together and ours was relatively small in comparison to lots 4 and 5.

I called my friend Claire who lives near Perry and she came and picked me up Friday night to go to dinner. She took me to an Indian restaurant where she knows the owners. One of her favorite belly dancers was dancing that night. Here is the dancer while she is dancing with fire.

After we were done with our dinner (which was delicious!) Claire got up and did some dancing with a lady that was sitting next to us. Apparently Claire does this often since she had her own jingly skirt and jingly head thing (she gave that to the other lady).

The next day I took the kids to a magic show that was at the youth center. Samantha was asked to come up and help with one of the tricks. Her brothers got up to help her as well.

One of the other things they had for the kids was a daily Oreo stacking contest. The kid and the teen who stacked the highest each won a $250 gift card to Target. They also raffled 4 bikes on the last day. Here are Samantha and Timmy stacking Oreos.

The second day while we were walking around you were supposed to look for a matching number from a number you were given while registering. Since we had 6 people with us, we had 6 numbers. Nathan and I were both walking around with 2 numbers each. We were talking about finding our matches and Nathan spotted one of mine. I walked with the lady to another area where you get either a hat or a tote for finding your match and then get to register for a drawing for gifts from Camping World. As I was walking back to Nathan I found my other match so I put in another entry. We finally found one of Nathan’s matches one hour before the drawing for the raffles and Nathan ended up being chosen for a $500 gift card from Camping World. I didn’t win anything.

We were going to stay until Tuesday morning but Misty was crying and was starting to get snippy so we left on Monday morning so we could get Misty to the vet.

Thursday was our last day of Disney so we went to Epcot. Timmy was in a mood and didn’t want to ride on any rides. I wanted to go on Spaceship Earth since I knew it was recently renovated and I haven’t been on it for years. I had to drag Timmy in and it ended up being his favorite ride. He kept wanting to go on it.

One of our first stops was the Living Seas which now starts with a Nemo ride in a clam shell to get you into the tanks. We went to the Turtle Talk with Crush and while waiting there are two tanks with stingrays. Timmy and Josh loved them. They kept coming up to the glass and moving across the glass. Here is a picture of Josh and one of Timmy watching the stingrays.

After that we went to the shark section which is just education about sharks and the kids decided they needed a picture inside of the shark’s mouth.

Upstairs there were manatees, dolphins and fish to look at. The kids decided to take a stop at one of the Kidcot stops and color sharks and dolphins to wear.

Next we had to go see Figment. It is Samantha’s favorite. Figment is a figment of imagination. He is a purple dragon and after the little ride the kids get to play with all kinds of things. Here is Samantha and Timmy conducting an orchestra. The machine picks up on their movements and plays music with them. The bigger the movements, the louder the music.

On another section they can make noises by running over lit boxes on the floor. Here are all three of them running around making noise.

We left relatively early in the day since we needed to drive back to GA to be in Perry early for check-in at the Rally. On the way out Nathan spotted a lizard and the kids decided it needed to be watched. You probably cannot see the lizard because it is in Timmy’s shadow.

The rest of the day was spent driving. We called ahead to find out if the Perry Walmart allowed overnight stays. It is listed as a yes, but I didn’t know if it would be a no because of the rally. The manager said it was okay and we pulled in around 11:00 alongside about 2 dozen RV’s and filled up on groceries.

Tuesday was our busy day. Nathan and I got up early and went on an off-road Segway tour around Fort Wilderness. It was SO much fun. I told mom I would take her on the Segway tour of Epcot on our next trip to Disney. Here is a spot that we stopped for pictures. The tour guide took a picture of Nathan and I on our Segways.

After we got back from our tour we made lunch and started to get ready for the Princess and Pirate night at the Kingdom. We arrived early at the park and we had four or five families ask to have pictures with us. They thought we worked for the park. One of the employees near the Pirates of the Caribbean ride offered to take a picture of all of us. Samantha wanted to be a princess so she was our prisoner for the night. We even bought her a pair of shackles to wear.

We were able to catch one of the special shows before dinner. Samantha and Josh took it as an opportunity to dance to the music.

We were also able to ride the carousel. We found out a tidbit of trivia on our tour and we were told which horse is Cinderella’s. We hunted for it and Samantha was able to ride on it. It has a gold ribbon wrapped around its tail.

Here are Nathan and Josh on their horses…

Timmy was next to me so I couldn’t get him and his horse but here is Timmy….

Next we went to the castle to have dinner with Cinderella. At lunch all of the princesses come and visit you so I was expecting the same. You still get your picture with Cinderella before dinner but the only characters at dinner were the Fairy Godmother and a couple of the mice and they didn’t personally greet each table. I would do lunch again but the dinner wasn’t worth the cost. It was wonderful food but you pay extra for the characters and the pictures and that part was not worth it. Here is a picture of Josh. On his left cheek you can see a red mark. He was kissed by Cinderella and it is her lipstick…

Timmy was being very grumpy while we were waiting in line for our pictures. He wouldn’t cheer up for the picture so this is the memory he will have of dinner with Cinderella…

Oh well… he cheered up once we were called for dinner because he received a sword. Both boys got a sword and Samantha got a wand. After dinner we walked around to all of the treasure spots and ended up with LOTS of beads. It looked like we had been to Mardi Gras. We caught a few shows, including one where they teach the kids how to be Princess Jasmine’s guards. The man in charge yelled that they forgot the swords for the demonstration and Joshua threw his in. He was trying to be helpful and the guy took it well and joked about it. However, the Disney employees who were trying to make sure the kids didn’t cross the rope line were annoyed.

While we were walking towards one of the treasure spots we crossed over the path where the parade was getting ready to start. One of the employees was sitting in the middle of the road so my family joined her and waved at the crowd…

The kids enjoyed being on display… we stuck around until the fireworks started going off and then we called it a night.

The next day was spent at Independence RV in Winter Garden. They were able to repair the short that caused the fire and replaced the headlight. Mom and I walked the kids down the road to a local diner for breakfast while Nathan stayed with Misty. We had lunch from a nice lunch truck that stopped at the RV center. I had a wonderful empanada and Nathan had some lasagna. Unfortunately the truck didn’t have anything the kids liked so they basically had chips and soda. After lunch we asked if it would be okay if the kids and I stayed in the coach if we stayed in the back so we spent the afternoon watching videos in the back of the coach where we were out of their way but the kids were at least able to play with their toys and stay out of trouble.

When we got back to Fort Wilderness, Nathan had to take a phone call outside. Josh is getting to the stage where he likes to imitate Nathan so he took his toy phone outside and followed Nathan around. We couldn’t help getting pictures because he was doing such a great job matching Nathan stride for stride and movement for movement.

I am finally getting around to catching up. The next day we did go to Hollywood Studios. The first thing we went to was the new Playhouse Disney show. They have changed the line up of characters in the show. While we were waiting the kids decided to get their picture taken with some of the Little Einstein characters.

After that we went to lunch at the 50’s Prime Time. We had a very sassy waitress who enjoyed her role. The point of the 50’s restaurant is that you are having dinner at someone’s house and they will yell at you if you do not follow good manners and they make you set the table. If you do not finish your dinner they will embarrass you in some way. Some of the times we have gone there the waitresses have been too nice and didn’t get into their role. This one didn’t have that problem.

After lunch we walked around the park. We went over to the Star Wars ride to see if Josh was tall enough yet. He wasn’t and Timmy didn’t want to go on the ride. The kids found a Star Wars relic to pose on for a picture.

Timmy was mad because he wasn’t driving so after the others got off he got back on for another picture.

While we were in the same area one of the parades came through. Josh was enjoying dancing along while Nathan was holding him.

Once the parade passed we let Samantha ride the Rock-n-Rollercoaster once. There were mobs of cheerleaders at the park for some kind of competition so the lines were very long. I walked her through the single riders line and since we were not able to get on the same coaster, once she was seated I went around to meet her at the other end. Our last stop of the day was that we found Mike and Sully from Monsters Inc and we all got a picture with them.

The next day was spent at Animal Kingdom. We were able to go on the Safari ride where we were actually able to see the lions this time. Usually they are sound asleep and laying down at an angle that you can barely see them. Here is the lion..

And here is the lioness…

After the Safari ride we ate lunch and went on the Dinosaur ride. We had never been on this one before because I thought it was supposed to be scary. It was a little scary and very bouncy. After that ride Nathan had to leave to get something resolved for work. I took the kids over to the Dinoland section and let them play carnival games which I have never let them do. Most of them were a waste of money because there was only one winner and the kids were competing against adults. I even tried to play some of them with them but I guess the other adults were better than me. There was one game the kids did really well at. They had to throw balls into cups and if they got the ball in a colored cup they got a dinosaur. Timmy won two small dinosaurs. Josh won two small dinosaurs and Samantha won two small dinosaurs and a medium dinosaur. Timmy traded his two smalls in for a medium one like Samantha had. This is Samantha and Josh on the bus ride home hugging their dinosaurs.

That night it was late hours at Hollywood Studios so after dinner Nathan took the boys to the playground and I took Samantha back to Hollywood Studios to see how many times she could ride the rollercoaster. The lines were still long so we kept going through the single riders line. I managed to get a seat on her coaster two times…. but she rode the coaster five times!! She was thrilled. It was a late night though and the next day was a busy one.