Amber and Nathan are back home now but while they were here I tried to find things to do with Nathan. I pulled the wagon out of the shed and Nathan really enjoyed being pulled around the yard. One day I pulled him for over a half an hour around the garage, shed, pool and patio. I was ready for my turn.

The late season crop of raspberries were ripening while they were here so we would go out back and pick some to eat. Unfortunately there isn't the crop that comes out in the summer but we managed to get a few.

Well Amber and Nathan just spent 2 weeks with us and I had lots of time to do some bonding with #1 grandson. Here we were playing town. It was a little play set with fire engine, mail truck, garage and ramps to drive on and little people to ride on the vehicles. He loved opening up the trap door on the roof and drop the people through it.
We took him to feed the deer. This is a private home in Clarkston that's completly fenced in, I'm not sure of the acreage but it's big. There must be over 30 deer in there. Nathan liked seeing the deer.
There were a lot of big bucks in there too.
Here Nathan and I are taking Bailey for a walk. He liked holding on to the leash. He looks like a little man with my hat on. Bailey was so patient with Nathan while he was here.
Every night before bedtime we would sit by the T.V. and watch a bit of Monster's Inc. The part where Sulley puts Boo to bed. He loved that part, so when she would go to bed it was time for Nathan to go to bed. It was so cute because after bath he would run downstairs all cleaned up in his jammies and dive on the couch next to me ready to watch Monster's. Now I have to see if I can get Shelli to do that now that Nathan's gone!

Amber and Nathan are here for a couple of weeks. It's nice having them here. Here is the beautiful pregnant momma and beautiful gramma.
Celebrating Shelli's birthday, Nathan's excited.
A visit to the pumpkin farm, Nathan got to ride the pony and play on these huge fan blow up slide and obstacle course (pics on Amber's blog). Nathan is wearing my Fadora hat from when I was his size. Mom gave it to me years ago to keep and now Nathan is wearing it. Cool!
Here Nathan is trying to make the frog croak by rubbing along the back of the frog with a stick.

For the past couple of months, I have been working out during our 1st break at work with friends. We have a fitness center with a large variety of machine and dead weights. We were bench pressing and out of the blue my right side pic and bicep muscle poped, on the front edge of my underarm. My bicep developed a huge bruise, worst than what is pictured. My first thoughts were, tomorrow is opening day of bow hunting and I just tore a muscle. You idiot! No warning or anything, the weight felt good, 185lbs, I was pushing up my 7th rep and then pow! Not good. So I have been taking it easy trying not to use my right arm but I keep tweaking it, ouch! I haven't tried pulling my bow yet and I have an appt. with an Orthopedic surgen on Monday the 13th. If it is torn I may need surgey to repair it. So, no fall season golfing or deer hunting, maybe, how sad! I'm giving my arm time to heal before I try to pull the bow back to shoot, I'll try next week.

Friday 9-12-08 Cedar Point

Well after a gorgeous week of weather the weekend arrived for our planned Cedar Point trip with Tom and Michelle and the forcast was for rain and lots of it! We had a decision to make on whether to go or not - so we decided to chance it and go anyways because even if it rains a little they'll still run some of the rides. Here Tom, Michelle and Shelli prepare to ride the "Dragster". I had already rode on it and decided not to ride again and took some pics. This ride takes off at literally 120 mph, then climbs straight up 420 ft. in a spiral, over the top and back down to the station in about 17 seconds. Whew, what a ride! This was Shelli's favorite.
Here we are waiting to ride in the front row of the "Raptor". You ride on a rail with dips and flips and twists, you name it. Fun.
Because this is the opening weekend of what they call Halloweekend the park is adorned with all these goons, gobblins and skeletons and things. At night they come alive and try and scare you!!
Here's aunt Wendy doing an inverted split, Ha Ha, scary!! The best part of this night was that the rain forcast must of scared a lot of people away because it seemed like we had the whole park to ourselves. They closed at midnight so from 8:00pm to midnight we rode on everything multiple times without having to wait in any lines. It was great. I was proud of Shelli and myself because we were handling all the big coasters with their major first drops and wild rides. Again what made the night was the no wait for a ride because as you, know on a busy day it usually take an hour or longer just to get on one ride. My favorite was the "Millineum Force" it was fast and smooth. The "Magnum" coaster beat us up. Anyways too much to write about, it was a fun and wild weekend!

Saturday 9-13-08 Cedar Point

Well Saturday morning the rain caught up to us, but thank goodness Tom had these matching rain suits to keep us dry.
Don't they look so cute!
After lunch it stopped raining and we had a great time without having to wear our matching suits. This is a shot from the ride call "Power Tower", you can either be thrust up or ride up slowly and free fall down. Here Shelli and I are waiting for our seat to release for our free fall. Michelle and Tom are on the same ride with us.
Because this is the time of the year they call Halloweekend, the park is set up with these fright zones and when it gets dark out all these people dressed up in scary costumes pop out from behind things or from the fog (they use smoke machines) and try and scare you. Shelli was cutting the circulation from my arm from holding on so tight.
This was a cool and smooth ride called "Sky Hawk". It's a huge swing that goes up like a 100 feet or so. When you swing down from that height you really feel it your stomach. It was a fun weekend with Tom and Michelle and we lucked out with the rain because back home only 3 hrs away it rained non-stop the entire weekend.

Chrysler's Arts, Beats and Eats.

8-30-08 Downtown Pontiac at the annual Chrysler Arts, Beats and Eats outdoor festival. This photo was taken on top of the Phoenix Center looking north up Saginaw street. It's very crowed, the city basicly shut down the street for the entire Labor Day weekend and have vendors all over with their crafts, food and stages for band at the end of some of the side streets. The main band events take place on top, on the Phoenix Center's main stage. Tonights main band is Boney James, smooth jazz. A couple of years ago we stayed for Rick Springfield (Jessie's girl) and the year before we saw the B 52 Bombers (Love Shack) they were crazy.
They also have Carnival rides. They were supposed to have a Guitar Hero contest, I didn't find it.
This vendor carves frogs, crickets and other different critters. They come with a small wooden stick and when you rub the back of the critter with the stick it makes the sound that it makes in the wild. Pretty cool.
Because Eva and Nathen liked the toads we caught for them when they were here this past summer we bought 2 small frogs , one for each of them. You hold the frog by their back legs and while holding the small end of the stick you rub the frog with the big end of the stick from tail to head. It sounds just like a tree frog.
This vendor welded different metal parts together along with a saxophone to make a cool looking sax player. There are so many cool and interesting things to see and buy, I just can't post them all.