James in front of Austin Dillon’s Sprint Cup car at our local Walmart in Taylor Michigan (Austin wasn’t in the car). The NASCAR Xfinity and Cup car races are at Michigan Internation Speedway (MIS) this coming weekend. MIS is located in Brooklyn Michigan near the Irish Hills for those who are not race fans but are state of Michigan fans. In the parking lot (pictured) you can see the Nascar truck that brought the vehicle to Michigan.

James has been a big racing fan since his first visit to MIS about 7 years ago. He has been to MIS three times and all for the same race (it kept getting rained out)

We had lunch with Grandma at Red Robins and James ordered his usual “hot wings”. We made it to the restaurant before noon and had no problem getting seated, in fact Grandma asked for our usual seat (which is the first one). After the meal we went to Spirit Halloween (which was on the way home) and looked at all the new decorations for 2016. Grandma enjoyed the haunted dolls while James enjoyed trying on hats including a sailors cap that made him look a little like Gilligan.

After Spirit Halloween we took a quick drive through Hines park where lots of activities were taking place. It was a beautiful August day, not too hot and not too humid and a drive through the park just seemed right.

Earlier in the day we stopped at Aunt Pegs and James did his usual vacuuming for Aunt Peg, then went across the street to return bottles to get himself a little spending cash. Aunt Peg hopes to see Richard down in September for her birthday and we certainly hopes he makes it as well.

Lots of fun on this hot day in August, lots of rides on the splash ride and a trip on the old mine roller coaster to try to dry off. All in all lots of fun. James rode a few of the swing rides that looked kind of easy till they started moving then it was like “look out” as the rides really took off. We enjoyed a late lunch at a buffet in the park and everyone got some t-shirts. Unfortunately they won’t let you take pics while you are on the fast rides (even when they are going slow) so that put a little damper on the picture action, but everything else was perfect. Next visit here we plan to see the dinosaurs, and the visit after that should be Hallo-Weekends so hopefully we have lots more of Cedar Point before the season ends.

You have to give James credit for being inventive, no matter how hot it got at Cedar Point, he always had a way to cool off.

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Nothing like a trip up to northern Michigan to beat the 90 degree heat with 70 degree temps. Mackinac City was packed and the weather was overcast all day so I am assuming that a lot of people who would normally have taken the ferry to the island decided to play it safe and stay on the peninsula. Since our last visit one of our shopping stops has turned into an arcade, which is fine since we have so many places to shop in Mackinac but not many arcades. James got to visit Sea Shell City and throw rocks into Lake Huron so he was content (plus getting some souvenirs and tshirts). All in all a very fun trip and a nice way to beat the summer humidity and heat.

Fortunately the Great Lakes have plenty of rocks to throw into the lakes, despite James best effort there were plenty of rocks left when he left

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This year Mom and Dad actually did some work at the Get Together, manning the discount book table and also doing a charity thingy for VIP camp. James was at Howell Nature Center so Mom and Dad had to hold down the fort. But fear not, James came out Saturday to the last day of the Get Together which keeps his streak going at ten (not bad considering he is only 12). We did manage to raise $30 on Wednesday and another $24 on Saturday for VIP camp so I guess we did some good. The annual Magic Get Together is always fun and we always come away from it with a great feeling as we see friends who we only see maybe once or twice a year at the event.

James made the trip up and back interesting as he found a 32,000 piece puzzle (its $300 and its not happening) on the way up, and on the way back enjoyed eating hot wings at his favorite Mexican restaurant.

Continue reading “Abbotts 79th Magic Get Together 2016” →

For the second year in a row James was invited to attend the Howell Nature Center camp for 5 days. This is without a doubt one of the biggest highlights of the year for James as he is not burdened with Mom and Dad for a few days and can just enjoy life and the great outdoors with his friends from Lincoln Park Middle School. The kitties we have did not know what to think since James usually returns from school or Vip Camp around 3-4 so they stared at the front window during that period of day. James phoned home a couple times and finally returned to us on a rainy Friday afternoon where we picked him up and treated him to lunch.

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Its hard to believe this year is going by so fast, it seems like we just sent James off to school in January and now his first summer camp is already over, where did all the time go. James had a very enjoyable summer with the VIP camp folks and was involved in trips to Turtle Cove, Movies, Restaurants, and many craft projects. This year his VIP camp overlapped with the Abbott Get Together and Howell Nature center so James missed the last few days, but Mom and Dad stopped by to drop off the charity money and pick up James’ photo album which include many of the pictures shown here.

The VIP Counselors with a message for James who was away at Howell Camp for the last week of VIP Camp.

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James being away at VIP gave us the opportunity to see a movie that didn’t have a talking fish, Star Trek Beyond. The movie has been getting very good reviews as it appeals to the older Trek fans and also the younger Trek fans who jumped on board during the reboot several years past. While we were waiting for the movie to begin (it was a matinee and we both got in for about $10, however I think we were the only ones there) Mom found some photo ops for the movies that were playing there now and in the future so we shot a couple pics.

The Star Trek Beyond movie was very good and did pay homage to the old television series, however it did seem a little bit long especially with all the action scenes. Lots of humor in this movie and it takes place in the middle of the historic 5 year mission.

After the movie we stopped at VIP camp to turn in some of the money we raised at the Get Together and to say goodbye to the counselors. Its too bad so much is going on this week (the Get Together, Howell Camp, Vip Camp) but we did manage to take in a movie for the first time in years.

Continue reading “Star Trek Beyond Movie 2016” →