Florida

The Colley family reunion was held in Florida this year and my Aunt Renee’s house. We had tons of fun seeing our family, and it had been years since I had seen some of my cousins! Casey was once again missed on this vacation…he did summer school and couldn’t miss…promise Ill take you on a fabulous vacation when you are done honey!!!
We were meeting up in Jacksonville but decided to fly in a couple days early so we could hit up one of the parks. We met up with My Aunt Sonya’s family (my aunt Sonya passed away 1 year and a half ago from pancreatic cancer) as neither Ashley or Adam had been to Florida, we learned that they had never been on a rollercoaster and literally feared them…so we went to Sea World, and had the time of our lives!!! We got there 20 minutes before the Park even opened and were literally the last ones to leave the park! It was so fun…and HOT…and not once did we not have a smile on our faces! We really went to EVERY ‘show’ the park offered, and even saw Shamu twice – they had a rad “Shamu Rocks” show at night with fireworks, it seriously was amazing! As much as I am in love with Shamu, I could never dive into the tank with him…scary!


My brother Bruce, my little sister Alyssa and I did ride the rides Sea World had to offer though…and we were not disappointed AT ALL! They were tons of fun…we did however, finally convience Adam (who is 13) to ride the last ride of the night with us…The poor things was horrified and I honestly thought he was going to cry (or puke) as we sat on the coaster with our feet dangling making our way to the top…But he survived and Uncle Joe just had to buy the $25 dollar picture of the 4 of us as Adam face was in pure shock, freaking hilarious! Good times were had!
The next morning we packed our stuff up and headed up to Jacksonville where the true fun would start…The last 2 years this family had spent our times together attending Aunt Sonya’s and Grandpa’s funerals, so this time, it was nice to see each other in “high spirits” if you know what I mean.
We really didn’t need to spend much money on this vacation as Aunt Renee has a great setup at her house…18 people stayed in her house and the 6 in our family stayed in a hotel down the street, she has a swimming pool in her backyard and then they have 200 yard dock/walkway that takes you out to the Intercoastal Waterway where you could fish…the site from her back patio is breath taking. Here is a picture I took of Alyssa on the dock, just so you can image!

Hours were had in the pool and roasting mallows next to it, to the point where Adams toe started bleeding from rubbing across the bottom of the pool too much…haha!

The boys and Bruce and Zea enjoyed a day long deep sea fishing trip and caught 3 nights worth of dinner for us! I had to skip out on this activity as I found my deep fear for the dark open ocean while in Cancun early this year…no thanks!
We also went to the coolest bar EVER…yes, I did say bar…look at the place – you order appetizers and drinks and play virtual golf! Every single person had fun here as Marks family are HUGE golfers! Guess who won? Yep, my parents!!!


This is by far my favorite picture as this is where most of us "cousins" spent our time...

This is where we would fish in the early morning, but when the tide went down as waterway was left empty with pure mud (obviously) where we are standing, there were hundreds and hundreds of little crabs everywhere! They kept us so entertained! Sorry you pure animal lovers...but we would pick the crab up and throw as hard as we could into the mud and just sit there and wait for it to make its way back up - it was hilarious! Mean right? No...they could get out, they were just stick at first! My older brother Bruce thought it would be "So funny" to jump into the mud, we swayed him otherwise and told him to just try one leg first to make sure he would be able to get out...(that is him doing this in the picture)and sure enough, he could harldy get his leg out as it suction-cuped him!
I unfortunately got diaper rash on my face while there – not really, but that is what it felt like! I got dermatitis on my face, neck and chest the day after we went to Sea World. Dermatitis is caused by intense exposure to extreme heat and humidity for a long period of time – do you think 13 hours in 109 degree + humidity weather counts? I think so – Dermatitis is often confused with Heat Rash and is much worse than heat rash – great! It looked like I had tiny blisters all over my face and I itched like CRAZY!!! It was awful and made for a ‘no-tanning’ week for me, but that’s okay, I still had fun – I still had it when I got home though, the dermatologist promptly knew what it was and told me it can take between 2 and 4 weeks for it to heal – bummer! And sure enough…3 weeks later, it was gone! Other than having diaper rash on the face, we had an amazing time and learned a lot about my family – want in on a little secret? I am the canasta queen, and NEVER play scrabble with my family, they will waste you!