bon bini...

Bon Bini! Welcome to my blog! Bon Bini is the greeting we received all last week while we were in Aruba to celebrate our 25th anniversary! It is a Papiamento word meaning welcome to my country or home. Papiamento is the native language to Aruba being a blend of Portuguese and Spanish with a little creole influence.
This was the view all week from our palapa (beach hut). Of course my photography skills are...well I just plain do not have any! I was hoping to capture the wonderful shades of blues in the water and the silky white sand of the beach. It was pretty cloudy for the first few days with breaks of sun... Weather which was just perfect for my husband who does not like the beach. The cloudy weather broke him in slowly and we ended up doing nothing all week but lay on the beautiful white sandy beach ~ float in the amazingly crystal clear water ~ and collect a few shells and lots of pretty white coral... Jim spent time in the water each day collecting all this wonderful white coral and shells. So these jars hold special memories for me and each time I look at them I will think of the blissful days he spent with me on the beach and collecting all the wonderful white coral for me. And he says he doesn't like the beach...
I have been adding a few beachy touches to my living room for the summer and these jars fit in perfectly... We stayed at the Radisson and this was the breathtaking view we had from our room... Like I said we did nothing all week but spend lazy days on the beach and ate our way around the island at night. We went to El Gaucho's one evening which is an Argentinian steak house. Garufo's was the cigar bar across the street which my husband wanted to go to. Thank goodness we were the only ones in there before dinner ~ I can handle the smoke from one cigar (ha)... We also went to Madame Janette's for our anniversary dinner. It was a little place in the middle of a local neighborhood. When you walked through the door and out back to the dining room it was magical. White twinkling lights all around, candles on the tables ~ all outdoors under the stars (now if I was any type of photographer I would insert wonderful photos to show you what I was talking about). The food was delicious and there was lots of champagne... Thank you Jim for a wonderful vacation, my jaw dropping gift and I am looking forward to the next 25 years (as well as our next trip to Aruba!!) Thank you to my wonderful followers who sent along the sweetest anniversary wishes as well as birthday wishes for Jake. I wish I could have treated you to better photos. To make up for my lack of photography skills I am going to host another little giveaway after the Fourth of July. CSN contacted me and has offered a gift certificate for any of their fabulous online stores! After you browse around CSN for a bit head on over to Faded Charm where Kathleen is hosting White Wednesday. I am hoping you'll all indulge me today and enjoy the Caribbean whites I am sharing. I can not believe I missed a White Wednesday! I am still trying to catch up on my emails and visit all my favorite blogs. Boy did I miss alot!