This is one that I couldn't pass up. Tulips are my favorite so being able to go see so many in one place was awesome. Beck was not at all feeling well so we didn't last long but this will be one that we return to in years to come.

Figured I haven't updated the blog about the Perry family's life in a while...

Treven- Working hard to finish out this semester. He has one final left, which is tomorrow, then he has an easy summer. He only has 5 more classes left for his bachelor's but not all five are offered during the summer or fall so he has to split them up between the two. This summer will be pretty relaxed for school. :) As far as work, he is working hard and going to be put into a lead position soon and hopefully from there be placed in management. He is a little frustrated at work right now, but he is still working hard. Treven joined a softball team with some of his coworkers and his first game is tonight, but unfortunately he can't make it due to work. He is turning 28 at the end of this month and always frowns when I remind him. He isn't even 30 yet!

Kim- Our "Tiny Peas Preschool" has now been open for 2 months and we have a total of 8 kids enrolled out of the 20 spots we have available, which is great for just starting out and the time of year it is. We are getting our name out there and hopefully when fall comes around we will have more kids. :) All of the kids come on Tuesday/Thursday right now, so it has been nice to only work twice a week and be able to do things with the girls at other times. I am training for a half marathon on July 4th and I am definitely looking forward to summer! Today is 70 degrees outside and the girls and I are trying to soak as much sun up as possible. I have had so much fun being able to go hang out with Marnie in Portland and be able to explore the downtown area. The girls love going to Aunt Marnie's house and playing on the playground near by.

Melia- She really wants to go to kindergarten next year, but unfortunately due to the cut off she will not be able to until 2012. Even the test that she could take to test into kindergarten doesn't work out. You have to be 5 by October 15th in order to test in. She misses it by 3 weeks. Oh well! It will be better for her. :) McKenzie and she are doing swim lessons, which today is the last day of this session, but she has grown so much in the 4 weeks that they have been in them. She will go under the water all the way and just walk around. Melia gets to move up to the next class when we sign her up for the next session which I am definitely doing with Lake Shasta coming in August. When Melia talks to you, you will hear her say the word "actually" a lot. She likes to use it to correct her. She is turning into such a little girl and I am surprised at some of the things she says. She has an incredible memory and will sing songs that she has only heard once before. Her artistic ability is amazing to me and she loves to create different artwork with cutting, gluing, markers, crayons, colored pencils, etc. She loves it all! Her friend Elyse joined our school and Melia is loving having her there.

McKenzie- Man! This girl is so expressive with everything she does. She is so determined everyday to convince me that she is 3 not 2.... I have to remind her that she will be 3 in July. She still tries to argue with me. She makes me laugh and want to scream all in one day. She is so loving and loves to have Melia as a big sister. It is so great to watch them play together. We have been doing the parent/toddler swim class since she is not 3 yet, but they told me on Monday that she is ready to advance to the pre-beginner class where I won't have to be in the pool with her. I am trying to help her to be excited about it and tell her that now she gets to go to the "big girl" swim class and she is becoming excited about. She really loves swim lessons and she knows when we are supposed to be going because she will remind me constantly. McKenzie LOVES to play with her friend, Maddie, who is 3 1/2. Maddie attends our school as well and our family absolutely loves the Wallingfords. They are an awesome family. It is so great to have the girls find such a great friend to play with.

This may be all jumbled together, but it is what I could come up with right now. Easter pictures to come soon.

Love you all.

So, Tracey's ID card is going to expire on the 7th of this month so she needs to get a new one. So, tonight she was looking for the building where she needs to get it done and she searched for directions. Well, for some reason google took the starting address as being in Ohio. The interesting thing is when we started through the directions I guess it is not going to be such a quick trip. Check it out. In particular check step 29 and 45. Gotta love google, sometimes...


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Just a video I found of Hayden while I was looking through old videos.

Yes, it did occur tonight on my way to Spokane. I stood like a little sheep, waiting to walk through the IRON GATE, controlled by the Blue Knight..when, much to my surprise, the computer operator on the scanning device alerted the team that there was a very suspicious looking flashlight crossing his screen. He stopped, ran to the other end of the conveyor belt and let another agent take his place. As I passed through the "GATE", I was rustled off to the foot print mat area to be questioned and interrogated by senior staff. My flashlight and all my belongings were swept off the belt and thrust down on the steel table before my eyes. I was made to sit and squirm as I watched them rub and twist my Restoration Hardware flashlight given to me by David last Christmas. I have made tens and tens of flights and a cruise with this light but now, it was the center of a giant conspiracy by this evil retired Navy Commander. I was submitted to the, "pat down", including ringing my chimes and patting every square inch of my being. Oh the horror! :( . Then, as they swept the cotton applicator over my flashlight and my suspicious looking iPad, they both alerted a sensor on the sniffing machine. Who would have thunk?

Back they went with my belongings, I believe I counted ten trips through the scanner and many, many sweeps of the white cotton cloth....still ringing off bells on the sniffer. I am now at level three and moved to another area of the interrogation space.

Questioned about my profession; explaining that the flashlight cannot be opened, "But, there are batteries in here"....hey, I could have told you that you domo. Next came scan number eleven and sweep over the entire iPad and Flashlight.

Evil eyes searched over me from head to foot. My wallet and everything short of my garments were swept away and rechecked. Actually, I was allowed to keep my shirt, socks and pants.

Then came level five. The fifth supervisor up the chain of command came over and did his investigation then required another sweep and scan. "well, I'm not making excuses on why your items alerted our sniffer but it could have been the cleaner in your dental clinic and some hand creams have glycerin on them"...Anyway, the cuffs were released and I was, I am certain, photographed the entire time. As I got up to leave and was told that I was "allowed" to take my personal belongings, I packed up and began to walk away...."wait", says the agent from level two. I need to write down your name on my "wheel log"....so he pulls out a spiral pocket notebook and scribbles my name in his book. After 30 minutes I was allowed to leave.

I'm sure I have been tracked to my hotel and probably was followed to Pho Van where I enjoyed a hot bowl of Vietnamese noodles. There was a suspicious looking goon sitting across the room from me giving me weird looks. Or, it could have been the black sedan across the street from the restaurant.

Anyway, I am going through a series of paranoia events tonight. I thought for certain when NBC came on with the news alert tonight that they were still looking for me as they may have lost my track. I did go into the PWR mode on my Prius and did run away from any car that seemed to be too close to me.

If you never hear from me again, think of the event in PDX today. They may have me hold up somewhere in a cement room in downtown Spokane. God bless you all, my family.....Dad

DAY ONE: 90 miles DAY TWO: 68 miles DAY THREE: 72 miles

Last weekend we were fortunate enough to have one of the greatest experiences ever! Thanks to the great idea of one of our friends we took our own bike trip around the entire island!! Words cannot convey the amazing experience it was. You had to be there to experience the views, feel the wind rushing past, and sense the thrill from making it up yet another huge hill. Tom is making a DVD of the experience and we’ll share that once it’s done. For now, I’ll try to do it justice, but just know, that most of what we saw and did we couldn’t take pictures of!! I wish you could have just come with us!!!

Before I start I must give a special thanks to my amazing friends who made this possible for me. I wish that my friends could have come and biked with me but only one of them is a biker and she has a small baby. I had to leave the kids for three days in order to go on this epic ride so all of my friends (the wives of the other bikers) took over in my absence. One friend watched the girls, another took Hayden so he could still go to school, yet another watched them all on Saturday!! It was awesome to know I didn’t have to worry about them. And the ride would not have been possible without our support driver, another wife who brought all our gear and food for us. She met us each night, cooked us dinner and then cooked us breakfast again in the morning. The food was fantastic and I was so happy to have some female company!! What awesome friends!!!

Here's the team:
Tracey
Tom
Erin
Rob
John
Derek

Day One:
We left from Camp Lester, 6 riders all fresh and eager to get the 90 miles underway. As with all good activities we started with a prayer and then headed off!!
The excitement was so tangible as we started. Within a mile we had our first, and just about only, near accident when Erin's iphone fell off his bike. I was riding behind him and saw it happen. Acting fast I stashed my bike quick, ran out in front of a big truck and snagged it before it got run over. That would not have been a good way to start the trip. Luckily, it was fine and we were on our way again.
About 8 miles down the road we stopped for our first picture at a nice bridge. We were riding toward the city through rush hour traffic so it was a lot of stop and go. The far left lane, where bikes go, is also the bus lane so that was complicated and we continually got stuck behind and next to the big busses. But we maneuvered our way through the city okay and eventually came out on the other side. We crossed some great bridges on the way and then stopped at a memorial for some of the students in the Battle of Okinawa because it caught our eye. It was great not to be on any schedule and to just stop and look and take pictures whenever we wanted. We enjoyed the view as we rode high above the coast for a long time.

By mid afternoon we were all starving, the day had started early with getting the kids all on their way before we even started riding. We really wanted to go to Coco’s for lunch for curry but couldn’t find one. We kept riding and riding and hoping we’d see one and finally we just had to give up. Instead we settled on a Jusco food court (a mall). All the other guys went for Chinese food but I was so hungry I needed some “real” food so Tom and I went to McDonalds. Let me tell you, french fries have never tasted so good! I also got an ice cream cone of new favorite flavor at Blue Seal, it’s called Okinawa Salt Cookie and it’s heavenly. I loved that I didn’t care one bit how many calories I consumed because I knew I still had another 40 miles of riding ahead of me!
We’d been going at an easy pace enjoying what a pretty day it was. We kind of pushed it a little toward the end of the ride when we had some hills. They weren’t huge but big enough to challenge us and make us feel tired. I smiled when I saw Tom with the camera as I came up one of the final hills but I really felt like this:
By the time we reached Camp Schwab, our destination for the evening, I was definitely ready to get off my bike. But I felt great knowing that I had kept up all day and really enjoyed the ride. Ali met us with our suit cases and a fantastic dinner. Then we all headed off to bed to get ready for the big ride the next day!
A few more shots from day one!





DAY TWO:

I think it’s safe to say we were all a little bit nervous for day two. The northern end of the island is beautiful, but very hilly. I knew I could do it beceause we rode it during the big Tour in November but that wasn’t the day after a 90 mile bike ride. We got a start late in the morning, around 10:00, hoping to find somewhere in the hills to stop for lunch. Here we are, ready to start!The scenery is breathtaking, the hills and tunnels were so much fun. The uphills were killer but everyone was awesome and just kept chugging along. From mile 20 to mile 30 in the ride it’s all uphill...it was insane but such an adrenaline rush to know we did it! Check out this shot of the elevation climbs on this ride. Killer.
The down hills were great but had me white knuckled and praying to survive. The views were beautiful, the scenery so peaceful. We saw very few cars and never found anywhere to eat lunch. The last cafe we had hoped for was closed so we never got lunch that day. Nonetheless, it was an amazing 68 mile ride. My favorite bike ride ever. I imagine it will keep that title for a long time to come. Tough day, but really satisfying. The pictures don’t do it justice but they try!













At last we arrived at Okuma, our stop for the night and again met Ali and some great food we were dying for!

DAY THREE:
We slept in the cabins at Okuma and heard the rain pouring down all night. After two beautiful days we knew we were due for some traditional Oki rain and we got it. It couldn’t be a true Tour de Okinawa without at least one rain day. After a filling bowl of oatmeal we reluctantly, yet eagerly, set off for the final adventure. Here we are, the final day. It was cold and wet but we rode strong and had no accidents. As we rode along the coast I kept reminding myself to look through my rain covered glasses and check out the view. When we stopped to refuel we all cooled off and ended up shivering like crazy until we got going again. Thankfully the sun came out about 40 miles into the ride and brought us home warm and dry. We stopped at a beautiful look out point and then at last, nearly 230 miles into our ride we finally got our Coco’s curry. Just a few miles up the road from home, we stopped for a late lunch. It was fantastic. Then off again, we finished up the last few miles, with an additional rider who joined in for the last day, and ended up back at the start. What an amazing experience.... something I’ll never forget!