Date Night Rut

Ah, date nights. It really bugs Andrew when I call it date night, so for his sake I will refer to it as Time Away From Kids or TAFK. (probably a more fitting title would be Get Me Out Of Here Before I Strangle One Of The Kids, but I guess GMOOHBISOOTK is a tad too long and almost sounds like a bad word when you try to pronounce it.)
We've been desperate for some alone time because we had three such TAFK nights within 10 days. That's a huge record for us. We haven't mastered weekly TAFK nights yet - we have other things going on or we can't find a sitter. Sometimes it's once every other week or sadly only once a month that we get a chance to leave the house alone. Obviously our children aren't old enough to leave home alone (legally anyway) so we're counting down the days until two years or so from now when Taylor will be 11 and she can babysit her brothers.
Like most nights out, we just jumped in the car without much thought of where we wanted to go or what we'd like to do - we're just happy to be away. The first night we grabbed a bite to eat then hit Target for some leisurely shopping. A week later we had TAFK night number two. It was sorta last minute, so nothing planned. We drove around discussing dinner options before ending up at Sweet Tomatoes. After some unsuccessful attempts at finding an entertainment center at a few places, we called it a night.
I had a babysitter lined up again for the very next day, but by then we had run out of ideas. We weren't interested in any movies that were showing and had already hit most of the stores we wanted to. Andrew and I walked around the new REI store in Summerlin for a bit but not wanting to waste any more of our time, we headed to the car. Of course I would have been content going to a place like Pottery Barn or Williams Sonoma, but Andrew wouldn't go for that. At this point we felt pretty pathetic that we couldn't think of a single place to go that was close by. Obviously there are a lot of places on the strip or across town that we could have gone to, but we simply didn't have the time (our sitter had to be home at a certain time.)
Out of complete boredom we decided to head to the Meadows (Ghettos) mall. It's been a LONG time since either one of us had been there. If I recall, the last time we were there it was a few years ago. It was Christmas time and we had 2 or 3 kids with us in tow. After dealing with the kids and making numerous stops in lots of stores, I vowed to never step foot in a mall with kids again.
Once we were there, I quickly felt like we stuck out like a sore thumb. Andrew was looking at shoes when I made the comment that I was feeling out of place to which he replied, "Really? I'm starting to feel right at home!" My only request was a quick look in Dillards for some church clothes so we headed over there. That's when I started to feel at home - Dillards will always remind me of my mom and my childhood. I would go shopping there with her all the time growing up. On our way out of the mall we hit Hot Dog on a Stick for some lemonades then headed for home.
After our less than exciting nights out, I decided we are in a rut. We need some new ideas for our TAFK nights. Does anyone else have this problem? Don't get me wrong - any chance I get to spend time with my husband is great. Sometimes those quiet evenings of dinner and a stop at Target are just what we need. But a break from the ordinary would be nice. Any ideas?