Troop 42 Recognizes Newest Tenderfoot

On Monday evening, James was recognized for achieving his Tenderfoot rank and earning 3 merit badges.

He earned the Swimming, Leatherworking, and Citizenship in the Nation merit badges.

He also received a patch for attending Summer Camp at Camp Cherokee and a patch and medal for completing the President's Trail ( involving over 22 miles of hiking) during his Washington D.C. trip during Memorial Day weekend.

He has been very busy during his first few months of being a Boy Scout. He has already accumulated 10 nights of camping since joining in April. During Summer Camp he also earned his Totin' Chip and Firem'n Chit cards certifying him to carry matches and build campfires, as well as, safely using woods tools.

He is shown here relaxing by his tent at Summer Camp. He shared his tent with Cory Burns and Michael Founds.

The leaders at camp remarked on his willingness to help out. He even took extra turns at volunteering to be a waiter in the dining hall.

He is off to a great start in Scouting and we are really proud of him.

All Four Grandchildren Make First Appearance Together

Saturday, July 27th marked a historic event. This was the first day that all four Humberson Grandchildren were gathered together.

The historic meeting took place at Rick and Annette Humberson's South Euclid, OH home.

The four kids who pictured here are the grandchildren of Ed and Judy Humberson of Winston-Salem, NC. Representing daughter Michelle is James (J.T.) Collins age 11 and Madison Collins age 9. Representing son Ron is Conner Humberson age 2. Lastly representing son Rick is Ryan Humberson age 1 month.

We had a nice visit and it was good to finally see our new nephew Ryan that we had heard so much about. Michelle was happy that she got to hold him. Each of us took our turns getting to hold Ryan during the day.

The kids really enjoyed getting to play badmitton in uncle Rick's backyard.

It was a very nice day on our fast paced Ohio visit.

Kids Squeeze As Much As They Can Into Short Salem Visit

This weekend we made a quick trip back to Ohio. During our stay in Salem, J.T. and Madison tried to fit a week's worth of activities into a weekend.

We started out by arriving just before midnight on Thursday night in order to squeeze some extra time into our visit. After a great breakfast to get our day started, it was decided that we would try to go fishing at a new fishing hole that Grandpa Leo had scouted out for the kids. We gathered all of the gear into the vans and hit the road.

Did you know that you can buy live bait at Walmart? Now we both know.

After picking up our worms at Walmart we headed to the fishing pond near Franklin Square, OH.

Here is a picture of Dad helping the kids get their worms on the hooks. The kids enjoyed casting, but the fishing were barely biting. The nearby swans we definitely in more of a mood to bite than the fish and the kids barely escaped their wrath.

After an hour or so of peaceful, but unexciting fishing it was time to move on.

After lunch, it was time to move on to a more entrepreneurial activity: Daylily Sales. J.T. manned the tractor and wagon, while Madison provided the advertising with her sign making. The Daylilies were harvested and put into pots. After a trailor full was obtained, J.T. drove the wagon into position near the road to attract customers.

Now that the business was set up it was time to move on to the next activity. J.T. discovered some old bicycles in the garage and got them out so that he and Madison could ride them.

Next J.T. helped out by mowing the grass with the riding lawnmower.

Madison then got her tractor driving lesson from Mom, and both kids posed for a picture while driving their tractors.

We ended the day with a wonderful meal of BBQ ribs and chicken and great fresh sweet corn on the cob. The kids were successful in making the most of their short visit to Salem.

Jr. Girl Scout Spends week at Camp Keyauwee

Madison, our Jr. Girl Scout spent a week this July at Camp Keyauwee in Sophia, NC. She shared a cabin with her good friends Cecilia (shown here) and Rachel.

The theme for her camp was Spooky Holiday Fun. During her six night stay, she went Trick-or-Treating, Christmas Caroling, dyed Easter Eggs, & made Valentines. She also did much of the fun traditional camping activities: Boating, fishing, orienteering, swimming, rock wall climbing, & archery.

She ate all of her meals in the dining hall. Her typical breakfast consisted of cereal, eggs, grits, biscuits, bacon, and fruit. Her favorite meal of the week was Belgian Waffles.

Her counselors had some crazy nicknames like: Sauce, Soldier, Chigger, Smash, Twilight, and Super Cheese. Soldier and Smash were both from Australia and Twilight was from Columbia. Her favorite counselor was Chigger who was from High Point, NC.

Madison's favorite camp memory was getting to make cookies and eating them.

Although she got a little homesick, it helped that she was together with her good friends.

First Baseball All-Star Game Appearance at age 41

On Friday, July 19th I played in my 1st baseball All-Star game! The game was played at the Greensboro War Memorial Stadium, which was the former home of the Greensboro Class A minor league team. The field was beautiful and it was a lot of fun getting to play there.

That's me batting in the picture. I am representing the MSBL League Pirates. The pitcher's brother was sitting in the stands near Michelle and the family and he brought a radar gun. He clocked him at 85 mph while he was pitching to me. I had a solid foul ball against him, but he won the battle. In my other at bat I flew out to right field. No hits for the night, but still a neat experience. In the field I played a couple of innings in center field and a couple in right field.

It has not been easy trying to play "real" baseball again for the first time in 22 years, but I am really enjoying it. There is something about baseball that all those years of playing softball could not compensate for.

Don't worry about me not getting a hit, I was able to bounce back and get a hit in my first at bat in my next game that Sunday.