Oregon Trail & Scarlet Fever

I think most people in my generation have very fond memories of playing Oregon Trail growing up. It was one of the few games that we were allowed to play in school because it was considered "educational." I know that I wasn't fooled by the "educational" label - the game was actually a lot of fun. Like most boys that played the game, my favorite part was seeing how many pounds of meat I could harvest during the hunting phase of the game. Though my family would barely make it out of Kansas before winter came - we'd at least have plenty of food to live on as we slowly succumbed to various illnesses.


I guess the game was somewhat educational in teaching you all the various diseases that could kill people back in those times. This past week, Sharon and I have realized how grateful we are for the advances in medicine since the days of the Oregon Trail. Caleb was diagnosed with Strep Throat on my birthday (April 27th) which developed into Scarlet Fever two days later. I'd actually not heard about Scarlet Fever outside of it being a common cause of death in the Oregon Trail game. Thankfully, we've been able to treat Caleb with some antibiotics that should kick the illness pretty quickly. Caleb has really been a trooper throughout and the main difference we see is that he is sleeping like a newborn again - which I have trouble seeing as too bad of a thing. When he is awake, he is just as energetic and cheery as usual and he has been free of a fever the last few days. We're hopeful that he'll be back to 100% soon and are very grateful for the fact that we're not on the Oregon Trail. Anyways, I know it has been a while since I updated our blog - so I've posted some pictures and videos of Caleb over the past few months.


Walking down the aisle at Sharon's brother's wedding


Caleb styling in his tux with his trusty Iphone at his side


Caleb getting some early golf lessons



Caleb rocking out on his guitar

Long Overdue

So I haven't officially given up blogging even if my inactivity would lead you to believe so. Basically, the perfect storm of blogging neglect happened - in that I was super busy and I also lost our camera. Fortunately, my life is starting to get a little more sane (for now), and my mom was gracious enough to send our camera back to us after we realized we left it in Pennsylvania. Though it seems ages ago now, we did have a lovely - yet chaotic - Christmas season. Our travels started the week before Christmas when we flew up to Pittsburgh and spent two days with my brother and family. While there, I took Sharon to the Nutcracker Ballet for her birthday present and Caleb also got to go sledding for the first time.

After heading to Clearfield and spending Christmas morning with my parents and having the rest of the family join us later in the day, I had to leave Sharon and Caleb in Pennsylvania so I could head to the Urbana Missions Conference where I was representing TeachBeyond. Though it was hard to leave my family so quickly after Christmas, the conference itself was really great and our team connected with a bunch of individuals interested in serving with TeachBeyond. I was also really glad that Caleb and Sharon got to spend a few extra days with my family - and Caleb especially loved his quality cousin time.

After a super busy 6 days at Urbana, I flew home on New Year's Day, arriving two hours before the rehearsal dinner for Sharon's brother Brian. We do have some super cute pictures of Caleb in his tux as the ring bearer, but we'll have to work to find those since we were camera-less for the ceremony. For now - you'll just have to take our word that Caleb looked super cool. Since we bought the tux on ebay and it will fit for a few more months, Caleb did say that he would gladly serve as a ring bearer-for-hire in return for a modest contribution to his dad's mountain bike fund.

Since Caleb's 2nd birthday was the day after the wedding, we decided to postpone his celebration a week so that everybody had time to recover. Sharon also had more time to create super awesome train cake for his train-themed birthday party. Caleb and I have especially enjoyed our times playing "together" with his Ikea train track set - though I think I enjoy creating new and unique track routes more than he does. However, my creativity is getting a bit stunted by the number of track pieces we have - so I've already told Sharon what I want for my birthday this year. Maybe if Caleb is nice, I'll even share my tracks with him - but we'll have to wait and see about that. So...if anybody has any of those old Ikea train track sets lying around and they're not sure they know anybody who could use them - just let me know and I'd gladly take them off your hands.


Caleb celebrating Christmas in Atlanta before we flew to Pennsylvania


Caleb's first sledding experience


Caleb opening presents with mommy in Clearfield


Me in front of our booth at Urbana (notice the clothing that expertly matches our display)


The amazing choo-choo cake Sharon made for Caleb's b-day



Caleb (and Mommy) blowing out the candle