Well, I am pleased with this Florida trip thus far. Talked to dh and they return tomorrow. Anyway, he said he hadn't spent a dime all week.

As generous as his parents were, it was a pretty cheap trip all around.

Airfare - paid for 5 with miles.

Hotel - paid for condo with timeshare points (I will never understand them and their time share(s). They love it and we get to use it all the time for free. Hey, if they are happy. The cruise we went on was also free through all that. I get the feeling if you look at what they spend on that crap it isn't such a great deal. Why would I get that feeling???).

Disney World - Dh and his dad used our tickets for 2000. We could not remember if we used one or 2 days then (was a 4-day park hopper which we bought because it cost little more than a 2-day park hopper - and never expires. Good move. We had so much money back then as compared to now too - LOL). They checked at the end of the day and s'posedly still 2 days left? Well I swear we went 2 days in 2000. Just bizarre. We will have to go again. Maybe sooner next time. Anyways, LM was free and MIL must have paid for herself and BM.

They went to Gator Land and MIL paid.

I think that was about it. They were going to go to Sea World but didn't make it.

His parents paid for all the meals. He said he would try to buy dinner tonight. Might be in the $200 range with all his family there, but hey, a week for him and the 2 kids in Florida for around $200. What the heck. Not bad!!!

The most ironic thing though was I was telling dh that I wanted to take vacation with the kids next year. I complain about work interfering with my time with them enough and then I took 2 weeks vacation without them and they went off a week without me. & all mostly due to family last minute plans. We have been saying we don't want to say yes to all this next year. We need a break. BUT it is hard to say no. We aren't big vacation people and it looks like we will have spent around $1200 when all is said and done between cruise, Japan, Vegas & Florida this year. Yes a steal for all we have done. But considering we didn't plan and had little time to save it has not been good for us financially. Since our annual vacation budget is pretty much $0. We are usually happy with day trips to the surrounding cities since there is so much to do around here.

So anyway, one thing we had been talking about doing is doing a family camp thing near Yosemite. I don't remember why we were talking about it, but it is relatively cheap and the kind of cheaper/local/down to earth thing we envision ourselves doing more than jetting to HAwaii/Florida/Japan all the time. Obviously not in our budget on one income. So it was so funny his mom mentioned on the way to the airport that she wanted us all to go to San Jose family camp. (I think it is just about the same thing we had been looking at - she said it was near Yosemite or something). I think that's a cool idea. The kids will love it with Grandma/Grandpa and I will get a simpler vacation with them. Plus the kids are freaking spoiled. They need a dose of reality if you ask me.

We also did not expect LM to get much from Disney but he absolutely LOVED it and BM got so much more this time than last year. So we are talking about going there next May with the kids. DisneyLand that is. Kind of a last hoorah before BM starts school and gets busy with schedules and all that. If nothing else I'll get a decent overtime bonus. Maybe even a raise too. I think we can save up some pennies. In our younger days our trips to So Cal were always very rushed and cheap. We don't want to rush it this time. But we might be able to swing a free place to stay with the timeshare thing. We'll drive. The park is expensive but we can eat out of the park and all that stuff we did last time to save money. We might make a few days of it. I don't think it will be an extraordinarily expensive vacation. Just expensive for our tastes I guess. But heck. LM will be free if we go right before he turns 3. He'll enjoy. & May is after tax season and before the crowds of summer.

But yes, I am all excited about that now. Dh was so cute, he called me like 10 times from Disney and kept telling me it wasn't the same without me. Ahhhhhhhh..... I had been to Disney with BM and didn't expect LM to even want to ride anything. So I didn't think I'd really miss much. But LM was one brave little dude I guess. So I think that is why I am all geared up about going again so soon. I missed out. IT's like a do over or something.

I am not sure about next year (except diverting some of my excess overtime to vacation). But after next year I think we'll have to start a vacation budget. I have really resisted it. We're not vacation people but as long as our families keep tempting us we need something more in place. I think my parents did a better job of having an "all expense paid trip" - then my last trip with MIL anyway. But all the same, the inevitable part of all these trips is you feel like a tightwad not to be able to contribute a dime. No matter how you slice it they cost money. & if we save up for better them we save tons by taking advantage of so many paid for trips!

I would also love to save up some money to take BM with me to Japan next time. I had too much fun there. I am getting a taste for travel I guess...