This past weekend was our 5 year anniversary -- hard to believe how time flies! We decided to go to a resort in Palm Desert, the Renaissance Esmeralda Resort & Spa (http://marriott.com/property/propertypage/PSPSR).

We arrived late Thursday evening and I met with a client Friday morning while Allen went to the pool (which also meant we expensed part of the trip!). After grabbing lunch, we spent a relaxing afternoon at the spa. I had a massage and facial and Allen got a massage. It was the best massage I have ever gotten. She worked tediously on the knots in my upper back until I felt the muscles release - it was incredible! By the time we were finished with our pampering, it was dinner time and we had 6:45 reservation at Ruth's Chris Steak House (thanks to a gift card from Dad). We do not eat a lot of red meat at our house, but we do enjoy a good steak once or twice a year. It has sort of become tradition to have steak on our anniversary because Allen booked our first anniversary dinner at a great steak house in Dallas. At the time it was simply because he was looking for a really great, classy place. However, since then, it has been steak each year. This year was just as good as always. We even enjoyed creme brulee "on the house" as it was our anniversary. We were so stuffed that we basically rolled out of the restaurant back to the hotel.

Since the first night was on GW, we used Allen's Marriott points to cover the next 2 nights. I failed to mention in the beginning that, due to Allen's "gold" member status, we were upgraded to an executive suite upon check-in. It was awesome! Most of our trip was paid for, providing me much piece of mind as expenses are much greater these days with a mortgage.

The rest of our trip was spent at the pool, at the gym and visiting shops around the Palm Desert/Rancho Mirage area. We ate too much, got a lot of sun and really enjoyed time together.