Just a short update... our family blog www.thefourofusperry.blogspot.com

Well since we have other family to keep updated as well, we decided that we would have our own blog to keep updated with our lives here in Idaho. We will post pictures and such as well. Our latest update is that McKenzie Lynn Perry came to our family on July 25th 2008 at exactly 2:00 pm. She was 7 lbs 12 oz (Same as her older sister Melia) and 20 1/2 inches long. I was induced but it was a very easy labor. She is now almost 2 weeks old and it is amazing to see the difference in just two weeks. Melia is in love with her baby sister and we always catch her just sitting there talking to McKenzie. "Baby... no no... baby? blanket? binky?" It is hilarious. Melia also got a Little People toy set from Grandma Barb and is in love with it. It is a camping one and there are chairs with it. She tries to sit on the chairs even though her foot wouldn't even fit in the chair. She also put the little people "night night" in their sleeping bags. She amazes me everyday at the little things that she is picking up. She seems so much older now that McKenzie is here.
Well we are going to take more pictures today. Our digital camera won't turn on... think the sippy cup spilled in the diaper bag on the camera... so we can't get the pictures we had been taking with it. Luckily our video camera takes pictures as well so we will just take more pictures with our video camera today. It is our 3 year anniversary today which is crazy to think about. Grandma Barb is still here so that we could go to dinner for our anniversary since we still have never done anything for it. She is leaving tomorrow night, but her stay has been a blessing with everything she has helped us out with. I start student teaching on the 19th in Idaho Falls. Then I will be done in 13 weeks with everything. I passed my Praxis for Health Education which is part of the certification for teaching. The passing score was 630, but I got a 780!!! I just have to take the Physical Education one and I will be certified to teach! Well love you all and that is the update for now!

Somehow I wrote this and didn't get it posted on the blog, so this is from Tuesday July 29th.

Well, the best news is that our express shipment finally arrived so we are feeling a little bit more moved in. I can finally do some cooking, we can sleep in our own bed (it’s still an air mattress but at least a more comfortable one!) We’ve met more of the neighbors and continue to have a ton of fun. Here are some of the things we’ve done so far:

On Saturday we went to a Japanese festival at nearby beach and shopping area called American Village. I’m not sure what American Village is all about, maybe like a China Town in the states. It’s a big shopping area with American type stores and a "mall" but it’s still all in Japanese. We walked down there and of course Danica had to go potty on the way. So I had to take her into one of the stores to find a bathroom. I was sooo wishing I knew the Japanese words to ask for a bathroom. I was really nervous but it worked out fine because I was able to find it without asking, phew! The festival was cool, lots of food and game booths like an American carnival. There was a huge stage with some sort of hip hop group singing, and they were singing in English. We looked at the Japanese food and settled on buying some sno-cones and settled in on the beach for the most amazing firework show I have ever seen. They shot them off right over the water and had a huge variety of designs. Our favorite were these fireworks that shot off in a half circle shape right on the water so it looked like they were sun setting or something, it was awesome. We had a good time and it didn’t even rain on us! Speaking of the rain it’s so random here. It will be sunny and then suddenly down pour so hard you get soaked in less than 5 seconds. I got trapped at the ATM machine yesterday, it was sunny when I started the withdrawal and I got soaked running back to my car...

Another adventure was yesterday at the aquarium. It’s the second largest in the world and it’s simply amazing! It’s about 2 hours away which is too bad because I bet we would go there all the time if it were closer. I bought an annual pass for 3600 yen (about 36 dollars) and all kids 5 and under are free! It was awesome. Check out the pictures of that and the fun parks we have been going to on the photo page I just added.

Our other adventures include just swimming on base, the pools are pretty nice. I took the kids to play group at the beach where they have a netted off section for swimming that was really nice. We didn’t have to worry about jellyfish or anything. Last night we went to a hardware store out in town. It’s always an adventure to go into the Japanese stores. I can’t wait until I learn some Japanese. Everyone is so nice and they try to be so helpful so that is great. There is a 100 yen store inside the hardware store, that’s the equivalent of a dollar store and the kids enjoyed picking out a “japanese” toy.

Well in other news, Alyssa is finally crawling. The chaos of the move really set her back but she has picked up and is all over the house now. We’re getting rid of Danica’s binky again which will be nice. I took Hayden in for one last shot thing he needed for school registration so that is almost done. I’ve got a few more boxes to unpack in my room and then we are done until the big shipment arrives in the middle of August. It will be so nice to have our couches and TV, our garbage cans, etc. But at least this way we have time to get things ready!

Okay, try to keep cool! Here are some pictures from the aquarium!


Danica just touched a starfish!

Alyssa loved watching the huge glass wall filled with sharks and fish

Naturally Hayden's favorite

A nice mist fountain to help keep cool outside

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. Here's the wrap-up:

First, Comicon -I guess I'll give a short overview here. I am planning on writing out a more detailed wrap-up to put on my website but I haven't quite gotten to that yet. I'll let you all know when I do if you want to see/read about all the craziness. But, for now, here are the highlights:

• Paul Bettany (A Knight's Tale, Da Vinci Code, Wimbeldon) was there to see his wife Jennifer Connelly on the panel for remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still. He sat across the aisle from us with their two little boys. So I spent that whole panel watching him play with his kids and be a very cute father. It's always nice to see famous people being normal. People were being well-behaved as well and leaving him alone, which was nice.
• Hugh Jackman's surprise appearance, as I already told you guys. Best moment of the weekend. :) I have lots of pictures of this, of course, but here's just one good one.
• Twilight - it wasn't really a highlight but I know a lot of you would be interested. The Twilight panel was out of control. There were more girls than I have ever seen at a Comicon - more girls than should ever be at a Comics convention. When they announced that Twilight was next it was like the Beatles were there! Screams at a decibel I have never heard reached. The panel was useless - all it was was screams every time Robert Pattinson (Edward) moved a muscle, let alone said anything. They showed ONE clip from the movie and it looks super cheesy and not at all like I picture that world from the books. I'm thinking I'm not going to like it much, but I'll still see it of course. The actors for Edward and Bella were acting totally high the entire panel and "Bella" was even texting people on her phone! Anyway, here's a picture of them and then a picture of me and Matthew doing our best impression of them:
• Gerard Butler (300, Phantom of the Opera, P.S. I love you) was there for his new movie RockNRolla. He was really funny on the panel but the awesome part was afterwards when we were upstairs picking up our swag, he walked out of a door and was walking right next to us! We were about to go talk to him when some stupid girl started screaming, no words - just a scream...ugh...so that made him start running to get into the next room he was going to. Stupid fangirls...
• Watchmen had a panel on Friday morning. This movie is going to be great. The director of 300 is making the movie which is based on "the greatest graphic novel of all time". I am still trying to get my hands on a copy of the novel so I can read it but the trailer is absolutely awesome. Just about the whole cast was there to promote it and my favorites of the group, Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Denny from Grey's Anatomy) and Patrick Wilson, were both there. We got to see them in the Exhibit Hall later when they were signing autographs as well.
• Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Run Fat Boy Run) was at Comicon on Friday to promote the US release of his 90s UK TV show "Spaced" along with the director Edgar Wright who he always works with. Michelle scored us some amazing front row seats so we were about three feet from them. In the show there is a part where they talk about how guys always have fake gun fights and so he did that with the whole audience. It was pretty funny.
• Saturday morning I was back in line for Hall H and ready for the LOST panel. They first did a panel for Heroes which was awesome if you like that show, I guess. The whole cast was there and they showed the season premiere. After that they had LOST. The writers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse were there as usual to talk about next season and answer fan questions. They surprised us all when they brought out Jack himself, Mr. Matthew Fox. I repeated by Hugh Jackman move and sprinted to the front so I could get good pictures of him. It was pretty awesome and he is much better looking in real life, if that is possible. ;)
• We wandered through the Exhibit Hall on Saturday afternoon which was fun and we saw a few famous people - Keifer Sutherland (24), Robert Zemeckis (director of Forrest Gump and lots of other amazing movies), Gabriel Macht (The Spirit) - but the Hall was insanely crowded and I was afraid the fire marshall was going to close it down because of a fire hazard any time. So we left early and took part in our yummy tradition of having Rockin' Baja Lobster. Yum!
  

• Sunday we made the jaunt back to the Convention Center for one more panel. One of our favorite shows "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" was there so we got awesome seats (again) in the front middle and enjoyed laughing with the guys on the show. The panel was moderated by Damon Lindelof - head writer of LOST - as well so that was cool. They also got the prize for best swag of Comicon - they gave us Season 1 and 2 on DVD and a t-shirt for FREE! :) Michelle even got to meet them and shake their hands after the panel. We also wandered around the Exhibit Hall after that doing some work promoting a movie that Matthew's boss made. Pretty fun cause it wasn't as crowded at all.
  
• And that wrapped up Comicon. It was fun but I was exhausted. I woke up at 3am every day so that I could be in line for Hall H by 5am. It was worth it though because we got some awesome seats for just about everything.
  

It is a quiet Sunday afternoon...Kim is resting, McKenzie is sleeping and Melia is watching "Over the Hedge" We went to church this morning. They have the gruesome start time of 8:30 am....Treven, Kim, Melia and McKenzie lasted through Sacrament Meeting then went home. I stayed for the rest and had a nice walk home. Their church is only about four or five blocks away.

This has been a pretty quiet time for me...as I told Kim, I came to help and be a grandmother...not to be entertained. We've done some organization stuff and sorted her baby clothes...including spit up stain removal. Yesterday, we went to Idaho Falls to make a trip to Gap with the discount coupons and to go to dinner at Johnny Carino's...one of Kim and Treven's favorites. Thanks, Brent, for getting the coupons.

Yesterday, Kim and I each got a copy of Breaking Dawn...Martha called yesterday and said that that is probably the reason that our blog has been so dead lately. I think it is more that we have generally been together with various members of the family. I know there have been several Vancouver get-togethers..and then Anne and Peter were over here week before last.

McKenzie is an exceptionally good baby. Only waking up once or twice a night and going right back to sleep after nursing. She rarely cries. I think the Lord knew what kind of baby that Kim needed!! Not that any of us need a fussy baby but Kim will be starting student teaching on the 19th so it is immensely handy that both of her girls are so good.

I will be flying home late Thursday afternoon. It's been great being with Kim but I am ready to get back to my own schedule in Vancouver...and obviously back with Dad. After almost 39 years of marriage, I think we are both a bit lost without the other.

Not too much else to say...thinking of Tom and Tracey. I heard that they got their express stuff the other day. It must make life a bit easier! And things seem on track again for the Monterey plans for Mike and Brooke. I've always wondered why we have to have so much excitement in our life. It would be so much easier if things all worked out the first time!

Love to all,

Mom

We Love You! Love, Mom, Dad and Beck!