Texas

The kids are currently spending some time in Texas with their grandparents. Reyna's Nana took her shopping and bought her colored hair clip ins and Reyna absolutely loves them, of course the pink is her favorite! My long time friend came to visit while I was still there with her little girl and it was great to see her after not seeing each other for over 8 yrs now. The kids are loving spending time with my stepsister Emily as well. They come back to Virginia on the 21st.

The Kids Get Their Swim On!

All three of the kids are on the Ashland Stingrays Swim Team. They love it and are doing so well. Nico is a natural and seems to do really good with dives and he has good speed in the water as well. Who knows he just might be the next Michael Phelps;) Reyna has come really far this year with her swimming and she has worked hard to overcome her fears of being in deep water! We are really proud of Pito for working hard to strengthen his swimming skills after missing out on swim last summer due to his foot surgery.

Reyna & Nico's Dance Recital

Reyna and Nico have been taking Hip-Hop all school year and they had their year end dance recital recently. It was a blast and they had so much fun.

Long Overdue Post....

We have not kept up the posts on here and we will be making sure to do so from now on! SOOO much has happened since our last post. We have now been living in Virginia for 2 yrs and it looks like we will be here for at the most 2 more years. Felipe is still stationed at MCB Quantico and my preschool/daycare Katy's Learning Tree is doing great! Nico goes into the 2nd grade next year, Reyna moves on to 3rd grade and Pito turned 13 this year... so we officially have a teenager in the house:) He will be in his second year of Middle School and is doing great! This summer is going well and we look forward to another great school year! More to come from The Perez Family.........

Perez Family Update

We as most of you know have made the move to Virginia from Okinawa. We are still getting settled in and yes we are unpacking! Everything is going well and the kids are loving there huge driveway and riding scooters, bikes etc. on it! We do miss Okinawa a lot but we are adjudsting to all of the change. I have photos from a photoshoot we did right before we left Okinawa with my students and the kids that I am going to post as soon as I can find the CD that they are on LOL! Hopefully I can get that done this weekend, until then hugs from all of us and take care!

Nicolas Pics

I snapped some pics of Nico this morning before school. They came out really good, so I wanted to share them with you guys! He turns 5 yrs old on the 19th of this month! I can't believe it. Time goes by so fast.

Leaving Okinawa Post #2

Over the past 6 years I have met some of the most wonderful people here in Okinawa. First of all I have to say that the Okinawan people are some of the most gracious and kind people that I have encountered. It is a centuries' old tradition of Okinawan people to express kindness and hospitality to all travelers and visitors. Before we came to Japan I had a preconceived idea in my head of how it would be. I googled it of course and learned what I could. However, nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to experience. It did not take long to figure out why Okinawa is called "the land of courtesy". It was realized early on that this was not something that the Okinawans tried to show or had to put any effort into showing. It was natural to them. They have the purest of hearts and are always so ready to give and never expect to receive in return.

I look forward to taking you with me down memory lane. My next post will be about the job that I stumbled upon by chance here on Okinawa and how it changed me forever!

Enjoy some of my favorite pictures from Okinawa that I have added to this post!