palm springs getaway

Chris and I just got back from what will be one of the big highlights of my year...two days kidless in Palm Springs. We loved relaxing, talking uninterrupted, playing tennis, and just being together. :) If you read my blog on a regular basis, you know that we are on a pretty tight budget. So how did we do it without spending much moola? 

#1 our entire stay at our FAVORITE hotel was free due to some old rewards points we had.

#2 Our favorite activities were cheap or free, like playing tennis...

and reading. I probably spent more time doing this than anything. I can't tell you how relaxing it was in the lobby. I'm deep into Wuthering Heights and intermixed that with some people watching...

Instead of going to the moveis, we rented one and watched it in our room (hooking up our car DVD player to the TV)...

Chris also played golf for $11. I was able to join him on the last few holes and enjoyed hearing him talk about the strategy he uses in playing. :)

#3 We ate for super cheap. Two of our lunches took place at Costco. 

A breakfast and dinner were taken care of with a gift card we had saved from Christmas. The other was our splurge night. We couldn't really go on vacation without a visit to our favorite, The Cheesecake Factory. Chris' expression lets you know this was no wimpy burger. He gave it a solid 10. Dessert was ice cream at Rite Aid. :)

I love that we didn't spend much money at all, yet we both had the best time with one another. I sure love my husband. :)

p.s. On a sidenote, leaving the kids was a little harder than usual for me. I think one reason was that I had been feeling a little guilty because my tone with Cameron before leaving wasn't the greatest.  The past few days I had felt like more of my interactions with him were more negative than positive ("Cam don't do that." "Cam you've already asked me 5 times"). Anyway, the guilt from that made leaving him a bit hard and I was bound and determined to do something super fun when we returned. This super fun thing came in the form of creating our largest map yet (he LOVES creating maps). So San Diego to Reno was attempted and I must say it came out quite nicely. :)