If you know me well, and most of you do, you know that I’m a planner. On June 17th, hubby and I will celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary. Natch, he and I are working on our vacation plans for next year in celebration of our 15th! My mom offered to watch the kids for the weekend for this anniversary, so hubby and I are off on a quick weekend away with only a couple of weeks of planning. How spontaneous of us (hey, you should take what you can get…we don’t get more spontaneous than that)!
As you may surmise from my earlier post about $$$, hubby and I had very different ideas of what we wanted to do on our vacation and how much that should cost. We essentially ended up doing what I thought we should, spending a lovely weekend up at his dad’s cabin in the mountains. I think paying for the airline tickets for next years trip to Maui made that decision easier for hubby.
Of course, our kids are still sick, at least Sweetness and the Big Guy are. The Friday morning of our departure was a stressful one. The Big Guy threw up in his crib at sometime during the night and continued to sleep there, so we started the day by giving him a bath and changing out his linens (and airing out his room – Phew!). I made the mistake of dressing myself for the weekend away first thing in the morning, so I was a tad unhappy when the Big Guy puked again all over my outfit. Both my incredibly giving mom and baby sister said they were okay with us leaving them with sick kids and agreed to watch the kids at my house (where the kids could vomit in a place that felt secure to them I assume. I would never accuse my mom of not wanting the vomit in her house). I spent the morning hours on Friday frantically cleaning my house so I could leave it in a state that wouldn’t be gross. By 12:30 we were ready to go. The Big Guy was throwing a fit because he sensed the imminent departure of his mommy and Sweetness took that exact moment to puke all over the bathroom floor, rug, and toilet so by the time I cleaned that up I was very ready to go.
Hubby and I headed into town first, intending to have lunch at California Pizza Kitchen and make a quick stop at the mall before heading out of town. We both realized that we were not feeling hungry (perhaps a little paranoid that we were going to get sick too) and decided to grab a snack at the mall instead of going out to eat. We ended up going inside the Harry and David store, where apparently we got our appetites back. We bought 2 bags of Moose Munch trail mix, a box of Mondo malt balls, a chicken pot pie and a trio of tortettes from the refrigerator in the back of the store, some crackers, and a coffee chiller mix. That should make a nice dinner when we arrived at our destination!
It was a beautiful drive up to the cabin (okay, our family calls hubby’s dad’s place a “cabin” but it is really a condo on a golf course…not exactly roughing it). We got settled in a bit before dinner and played some cards out on the balcony. After dinner, we took a ride into the nearest town (a gas station, hardware store, and mini-grocery store make up the town) and grabbed some ice cream before heading out on a walk.
Saturday morning we woke up to neither an alarm clock nor our children and enjoyed our Harry & David coffee mix and some bagels.
Then we headed out to do some horseback riding. For the most part, we had a delightful time horseback riding. It was great to get up amongst the trees, enjoying the views and chatting with our guide Mitch. Hubby had a nice gentle Pintabian horse named Belle. I had an Appaloosa horse named Tootie that instantly knew that I wasn’t an authority figure. Mitch had a good laugh at my relatively frequent yelps when Tootie decided to jump, or trip over a tree branch, or walk off the trail for a tasty snack of flowers nearby. Mitch wasn’t laughing quite so hard when he realized that I was honestly terrified and beginning to tear up when Tootie wouldn’t quit hovering near the side of a cliff. Mitch tried to distract me by talking about cheese (cheese?) until Tootie meandered back to safer ground. After returning to the corral, back on the ground, I was glad to have gone riding. The fear-thing wasn’t my favorite, but I would rather go through some fear and be able to enjoy a new activity than to stay home and not be able to go. 
We head back to the cabin to hang out for a bit. Hubby’s stomach was bothering him (a chronic problem for him) so I took a relaxing shower and a nap. Hubby and I watched Dirty Jobs w/Mike Rowe on TV, several episodes, and then drove into town for some dinner. We ate at a great little Mexican cantina. I had the skirt steak and grilled onions, which I LOVE, but Mexican might not have been the best choice for both hubby and I. We hightailed it back to the cabin for the safety and security of the bathroom. And there we stayed…for the rest of the evening and alternately through the night. Ahh, such togetherness. Ahh, such romance.
The next morning, our original plan of a tasty breakfast at a local hotel no longer seemed like a good idea.
Dirty Jobs w/Mike Rowe was again on TV, so we nursed our weak stomachs and sore backsides (from the horseback riding, people! Don’t be gross) by sitting on the couch and not eating breakfast. Then back home for us. Now for the annoying part. At the end of every vacation, I always tally up what we spent.
Auntie Anne’s: $6.66 Hubby’s mall snack, pretzel and lemonade
World Wraps: $3.09 My mall snack, chicken taco and water
Harry & David: $50.92 Pot pie, crackers & dip, snack mixes, coffee mix, malt balls
Grocery Store: $10.00 Soda, cream cheese, milk, bagels
Local mini-grocery: $10.00 3 coloring books for the kids, 2 ice cream snacks for us
Horseback riding: $108
Mexican cantina: $50.00 dinner
Total: $238.67
Oh, and I gave my sister $30 to take the kids to the movies, so that brings us up to $268.67.
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