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