Girls Escape to ARUBA!!!

For my big sister’s (aka best friend) 30th birthday, she wanted to take 4 of her girlfriends to Aruba!! Needless to say, 5 of us girls from TN, KY, & SC met up at the Charlotte airport to fly 4 anxious hours to Aruba. While I DREADED flying (especially in a jet) to Charlotte, I was so relieved to finally be around my girlfriends for a little better comfort over the next 4 hours. We all left bright and early Thursday morning on February 25 and went from 25 degrees to 86 degrees many hours later!!!

While in route, we met a group of sisters who were traveling to Aruba to celebrate one of the girl’s 50th birthday; and the couple next to me was from Lexington, KY escaping for a weekend away from home stress while their kids were staying with grandparents. So you can imagine how many excited and happy people were aboard our flight!

Once we landed and stepped outside the Aruba airport, we tossed our winter coats, took off a layer or 2 (jackets, shirts) - I was about to strip off my shirt but my tan-less body wouldn’t allow me to show any skin just yet. Humidity was high but we were 5 happy girls about to have a HAPPY time soon to discover why Aruba is called “One Happy Island!”

The 1st night was spent wandering around at dusk, eating, giggling, and catching up. We just couldn’t wait for the sun to rise in the morning and thought twice about just staying awake to watch the sunrise.

Our 1st day was absolutely breath-taking - white sandy beach, aqua-blue water, and bright colors. The sun was so HOT, intense, but so relaxing!! I started my morning (before breakfast) spraying on Sport 30 sunscreen for I didn’t want to spend our short trip in pain.

Not only was the scenery a beautiful image sketched by God, but us 5 spiritual, Christian girls, sisters in Christ, dug deep conversations and got to know each other very well! Not a day went by where we didn’t talk about our Friend Jesus. We talked about our many blessings, challenges in life, values, beliefs, and even our families! We discovered all our parents are still married and how much God has provided for us and even brought us together! We prayed over every meal, including Leroux praying in Italian and our waiter joining us on our last night. There was no competition like 25 girls fighting over the Bachelor! We respected our differences and opened up to learn more about each other. This trip…was what we ALL needed and we plan on many more in the future, even with our daughters.

Our last day was on a Sunday. Since we normally go to church on this day, we decided to bring our own church together on the pier with Komis leading Romans 12. It was beautiful and humbling!!

Some Arubian Highlights (shown in some pictures above):
1. Dana & Leroux competing on who had the worst bathing suit growing up (both had very strict rules). Well, Leroux said she couldn’t top Dana’s – she had to wear a bathing suit with a skirt made by her mom. Leroux just had to wear a tank top over hers.
2. Watching the sunset.
3. Dana & Leroux attracting attention with their photography sessions (visit Leroux’s photography website here).
4. Accidentally crashing a corporate beach party our 1st night walking the beach & Dana steals name tag :) It was hard to not jump in and dance!!!

5. Lana getting so burnt…she had pitting edema + 2 (we had 2 nurses on board)!!
6. Celebrating Lana’s 30th – decorating her room while she was in the shower, rolling out the red carpet (literally, people were staring), and rolling up to the South Beach Lounge in a new black Cadillac to dance and party the night away for Lana!!
7. Going around the table at dinner and listing 30 wonderful things about Lana, the things we admire about her, and stories.
8. The waiter joining us in prayer our last night.
9. A little girl wanting to meet Miss 30 – the beauty queen!
10. Sharing the poolside with Iguanas!!
11. Beach volleyball.
12. The awesome, refreshing drinks – including the “Lana Special”
13. Meeting friendly people from all over – and a woman who said, “You can make more money in 5 minutes getting married than you can make yourself over a lifetime!”
14. Komis leading church on the pier.

15. Talking about our Friend Jesus!