Focht Family Blog

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….

A couple of days before Christmas I woke up to find that Timmy had rolled out of his bed and was snuggled with Josh on Josh’s bed. I just had to get a picture.

I think all the excitement was catching up with them.

Friday we got up early, packed everything up and checked out. We verified that we could park for free during the day and headed off to the ticket and transportation center. We followed the signs to park and then we were told we would have to go out and start all over again and park in the bus parking. Once we got to the bus lot, they said that we were supposed to park where we originally went. Thankfully the lady in charge of the bus lot let us park for the day since they would not be full that day. We started out the day at Epcot. Nathan wanted to go on Soaring, a ride that simulates you flying in a hanglider. We also went on Test Track, a high speed car ride, and I took Samantha on Mission Space which simulates you flying to Mars. Timmy isn’t quite tall enough for Mission Space so he had to sit that one out. I sat out of Soaring with Joshua since my mom loves the ride. Joshua and I bought some desserts and waited for them to get out. Here is a picture of Joshua at the table with chocolate on his nose. The scratch under his eye is from him falling while walking on the sidewalk the day before.

Once the rest of the family got off of the ride we headed to lunch and then took the monorail back to the ticket and transportation center where we took the BIG ferry over to the Magic Kingdom to go on a few rides the kids wanted to hit again. My last picture is of my mom and the kids on the ferry.

We left the park around 4:00 and started the drive home. We had to stop for dinner and for dog food since we had run out earlier in the week and we had to feed Misty scraps. There was major traffic in Jacksonville where they had shut down a section of the freeway. We made it to Savannah at 1:00 in the morning and by then we were both so tired we couldn’t make it the last hour to Statesboro so we crashed at the Home Depot parking lot. We got some breakfast at Chick-Fil-A first thing in the morning and headed back to Statesboro in time for our appointment with the hairstylist that is teaching me how to cut everyones hair. My mom and Josh are hard to cut and Josh has a spot where I went too high with the clippers now but Timmy and Nathan are pretty easy and she didn’t have to correct much on their haircuts.

I think this was one of our best trips to Disney. Josh is old enough now that he really enjoys it and was in awe the whole time. When we were leaving he acted like all of the employees had personally invited him there and he waved bye to each and every one. He also had to stop and talk to each employee on the way out after we returned the stroller to show them the stickers that someone had given him. I am looking forward to our next trip in March. I am going to try to plan our trip out a little more so I can get reservations at some of the restaurants that we enjoy. I also want to get reservations for Nathan and me to go on an off-road Segway tour of Fort Wilderness. I tried to get reservations on this trip but they were already fully booked.