my niece and nephew

Hi, it’s Peg. I have mentioned before that I have a beautiful, smart and wonderful niece and nephew from my brother, Bob, and his wife, Aiko.  My niece is Layla and my nephew is Alex. They were both born and raised in Tokyo. Layla was born in the mid-80s and Alex was born in the late-80s. Layla is married to Sebastian Cole. Layla and Sebastian have a son named Kai. He is turning one year old in January and already looks like he is almost three! (I guess it would serve me well to mention that Layla is 5’9” tall and Sebastian is 6’2”.) Kai is so darn cute! Layla, Sebastian, Kai and Alex all live in LA.  Bob and Aiko still live in Tokyo. As I may have mentioned previously, Layla, Alex and Sebastian are all grown now and graduated from college. Layla is now employed as a Wardrobe Stylist on the Ellen Degeneres Show, Alex works on commercials and photoshoots as a production manager/coordinator, and Sebastian is an actor. Most recently Sebastian has had multiple appearances on Amazon Original’s I Love Dick, starring Kevin Bacon, and  Freeform’s (Previously known as ABC Family) Stichers. Please be sure to check him out!!

Although Layla and Alex did not grow up in the States, we kept in touch with them as if they had - my parents made sure that we could and that we did! And because Bob was a professor at a university in Tokyo, he and Aiko and the kids were able to spend much of every summer here in the states with us when the kids were growing up. And they spent much of the summers with my parents later, after the kids did grow up.

I could “spill” some priceless family secrets here, but I won’t.  But for sure, if you happen to know either Alex or Layla, you may want to ask what Alex happened to say in front of my mom one night.  He said it one night at my home (near the front door) when his dad was planning to stay with me and his uncle but Alex had to leave for the night with his grandparents. He wasn’t happy about having to leave the party. Let’s just say he spent a few precious minutes in the bathroom with his dad - being told not to use that sort of language in front of his grandmother!   
One of the special things I remember doing every summer when Bob and his family would come for their visit, is have a sort of a family reunion. We would swim, visit, eat, play games and just enjoy ourselves!!  We were able to invite as many people as we could. We invited not only family, but friends too. And over the years we were able to invite friends from distant years back and family of some of those friends. I remember always being able to invite Scott. He was a friend of Bob’s who later became part of our
family - along with his wife, Rika, their son, Kota and his mom, Rose. We were also able at one point to invite old high school friends of Bob’s, Tim and Doug.

When Layla was ready to go to college, Bob and Aiko wanted to make sure she went to university here in the States. She attended and graduated from the University of Oregon. Alex also attended and graduated a university here in the States. He went to Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles - a Jesuit University. His dad was a professor at Sophia University in Tokyo - another Jesuit University. And our Annie happened to graduate from Santa Clara University - yet another Jesuit University!

Sebastian and Layla met in Los Angeles in 2012, but prior to that he attended Florida Gulf Coast University. Sebastian was raised in Florida by his Swedish mother, Catherine,  and Colombian father, Carlos, that was a prized bullfighter. Although Layla and Sebastian met in the States, they married in Sweden during the summer of 2017. In addition to Sebastian’s family being able to make it to the wedding, many of us from Layla’s family were able to make the wedding as well. What a wonderful global mix!!

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