Eric Herman - Travelblogue: 2008 Spring/Summer Tour

Evee was pretty stable this morning... no throwing up... so that was good. Roseann gave me a haircut and we left the RV park and went to Larissa's. Speaking of haircuts, a quick aside to those of you who had seen Becca with very long hair last year and might have noticed her significantly shorter hair this year. Well, while we were home over this past winter, Becca did the "hey, here's some scissors... I think I'll give myself a haricut" thing. It was pretty brutal as haircuts go... three bald spots on the top, middle and back... but as we found out from other parents we talked to, that is apparently a rite of passage for many kids her age. It's finally growing out again but still has a way to go to catch up to where it was.

Anyway, We hung out with Larissa and her kids for much of the day. Evee mostly rested on the couch but she was able to keep everything she ate down and got up to play a few times. As it turns out, two of Larissa's kids have what seems to be the same thing, and I guess a lot of kids in Hollie's elementary school have it, too. I suppose that's reassuring in a way, that Evee probably doesn't have some freakish thing that Dr. House would need to solve, but it's still been rough for her riding it out.

Larissa and Roseann went out shopping for a while and I held down the fort with all of the kids. Her husband Sam came home and the two of us went out for some ice so we could use their new ice cream maker. While we were gone, he and I talked about how we each come from very small families... I have two sisters and their families, my parents and one uncle and aunt, and that's it (well, I have some relatives over in Germany, but I haven't seen them in over 20 years)... and Roseann (and Larissa's) family is enormous. Roseann is one of eight kids, many of whom have several kids of their own, and they live all over the place. Roseann is the youngest of her siblings, so many of her nieces and nephews are her age or near her age. The cool thing for me is that by marrying Roseann, I really gained so many new brothers, sisters, cousins, nieces, nephews and close friends. I love my own small family very much, of course, but I have now been able to appreciate and receive the love and interaction of a very large family, and that has been a wonderful thing.

We had dinner and then some yummy homemade ice cream, and then we had a family home evening and talked about how we're grateful for our hands and all the things we can do with them. Larissa had each of the kids close their eyes and reach into a paper bag to feel an object inside so they could appreciate the sense of feeling with their hands. I jokingly said that I wanted a turn and so Sam took the bag and totally got me by punching a hole in the bottom and grabbing me with his hand through the bag when I reached in. Zoinks!

After that, Sam fired up their Wii. I had heard about the Wii for a long time and had been eager to try it out. It is truly an amazing innovation and brings some actual physical activity to video games. You can really get a workout with the thing. We played some baseball and golf and some other games and had a really great time. Becca tried to play it but couldn't quite get the hang of it. She and Evee were happy enough that we created character avatars for them. My first inclination was that we need to get a Wii immediately, but the reality is that it wouldn't make too much sense for us to have one when we're gone for several months of the year, especially when it's not something the girls could play with for a while.

We played Pandemic with Sam and Larissa. Yeah, that's obviously our favorite game right now and everyone we play it with is eager to play again, too, especially when we come so close to winning, as we did again tonight. We said goodbye and drove to an RV park in Mesa and stayed there for the night.

Hanging out with Sam and Larissa's family...