For those of you who need a little background on my family, my mom's family moved from Montana to the Panama Canal Zone when she was 1 years old. My grandfather got a job working on the Panama Canal. She grew up in the Jungle and on the Atlantic side of Panama. My dad is 1/2 Panamanian, spent some of his childhood in Panama and then moved to Alabama, when he was about 10 years old with his family. After he graduated high school, my dad moved back to Panama where my mom and him eventually met and married. Panama is also the place where my older brother Eric was born. I am connected to Panama not only through my dad, but also my mom. YOu'd never guess with her red hair, and green eyes :)
Every year, the "Zonians" as they are referred to, have a huge reunion in Orlando, FL. I've known for a while that my mom was planning on going to the reunion this year, but with school, and work at the hospital there was no way I was going to be able to make it. Well, my preceptor took a week off for vacation resulting in me with a week of vacation because I am not allowed to work without her presence, since I work under her license. The morning my mom was to leave she stopped by the house to say by, and instead invited me to join her for week in Orlando! Eric told me to go, so I packed quickly and jumped in the car with my mom and we headed to Tampa. My Uncle Bill and his wife Debra live in Tampa, FL. so we stayed 2 nights with them until we could check into our hotel in Orlando. While in Tampa we went to this indoor trampoline place called Airheads. We had so much fun Jumping, playing dodgeball, and flipping around.
We also had a girls day and went and got mani's & pedi's. On wednesday morning we drove the short hour over to Orlando and met up with my Uncle Stuart, Aunt Manuela, and cousin Amanda for breakfast at the hotel. We then headed over to Sea world and had a blast with the sting rays, dolphins, Shamu, and all the other fun sea animals. The weather wasn't very good in the afternoon so most of the rides shut down due to lightening.
Back at the hotel we met up with the rest of Allen family and went to dinner at the Poolside Bar and Grill. Yummy.
Thursday morning was the start of the reunion so after a morning workout and a delicious breakfast at the Buffet, I went back to the room to do homework, yeah I know! Ugh! It didn't take long to finish everything and then I met my cousin Amanda down at the pool! After catching some sun my mom and I went for hot stone massages at the Hotel spa. Divine! That evening we met up again with the Allen family for a yummy dinner at the Italian restuarant in the Hotel. When all the "grown ups" left for their high school class reunions for the night, I took my cousin Amanda to Downtown Disney to walk around and see the fireworks. We had fun dancing, shopping, and walking around picture taking.
With mom
With mom and Amanda
L to R: Mom, me, Amanda, Stuart, Manuela
The Marriott Orlando World Resort
Legos
Lego Family…and me!
Amanda with frozen goofy
I'm suppossed to be cold but I like scared instead bahaha
One of my favoirte art pieces in the disney art store…If only I had a nursery to put it in wink wink :)
Friday morning was full of reunion fun. We went and checked out all the vendors selling goodies. These vendors sold everything from Panama T-shirts to jewelry made out of hamburger seeds, and purses. My uncle Brian Allen just published a book and had a table set up to sell. He also had a book reading that afternoon, which was awesome!!! I was so proud of him! We had an Allen family reunion at Landry's seafood Restaurant that night and then went night swimming with my cousin Amanda.
Autographing books..He is kind of a big deal. Check out his awesome memoire book, "My Paradise Lost: Misadventure to manhood in the Panama Canal Zone
" By Brian Allen. The book is available on Amazon and Kindle.
Saturday morning we woke up worked out again, went to breakfast, and then headed over to Aquatica. Aquatica is the Seaworld water park. We had a total balst and stayed all day! That night we went to the Panama Canal Ball. It was fun getting all dressed up and spending the evening dancing to panamanian music, although I did spend a good deal of the night keeping an eye my mom and swatting away all the pervy guys hitting on her. LOL!
The group of us, plus mom taking the picture
My mom and Aunt Lori
Amanda and I
Everybody though Amanda was my mom's daughter and I was Lori's daughter. :D I've been told that my whole life that I look like Lori, some people call me Lori all the time cough, mom. JK
Picture with the Storers'. They were my mom's family's best friends and neighbors in the canal zone.
Sunday morning we woke up and had one last big breakfast everyobody before jumping in the car and heading back home. It was a wonderful, spontaneous trip, and I am so glad I got to share the week with my mom and the rest of the Allen crew. I also got to see some of the Winberg family at the reunion that was a wonderful surprise. My uncleTito, and my cousins Karen and Stephen made it to the reunion, and it was great to see them there.
Breakfast with the crew…and at the end in the back…see if you can spy me. :)
The 5 remaining Allen Kids. Steve was surely missed, as was Granddad and Fefe! I'm sure they were with us in spirit that week.
