I mentioned offhand we saw a rattle snake on one of our hikes.

Of course, the kids, seeing the warnings of all these dangerous animals, were convinced we'd see all of them (bears, mountain lions, etc.)

So we started on a hike one day and BM stops to exclaim- "Rattle snake." I spotted the dude but wasn't too wary until my dad said, "IT actually is, it's a rattle snake." So we proceeded past it quite cautiously. IT was taking a nap with his head awfully close to the trail, if not on it.

Just had to share though. Don't look if you don't like snakes!

Thankfully BM spotted it (& we didn't step too close to it) and it was in a good mood as long as we kept our distance.

That was our adventure.

Thankfully, it ended well...

& of course my dad had to snap some pics. He has an incredible zoom - trust me - we didn't get very close.

Just got back and had a few pics to share, below.

We went to San Jose Family Camp, which is owned and run by the city of San Jose. We don't live there, but are from there and I guess if you are willing to pay a premium you can generally go to any family camp. I HIGHLY recommend if you have kids, and a local family camp. We just had a blast!!!!

We went with my dh's parents and my dad (my mom is just not a travel or camping type).

We had 2 tent cabins right next to each other.

What PRIME real estate!! We were a 20 mile drive from the west entrance into Yosemite. I don't think we could have stayed anywhere else so close for half the cost, so we were very pleased in that regard as well.

So MANY activities for the kids (moreso BM than LM unfortunately, but will be right up his alley next year).

The food was hit and miss, but there was PLENTY.

We paid around $600 for the 5 of us (paid for my dad) and that was about it. We needed about one tank of gas and we treated everyone to ice cream in Yosemite. Otherwise all the meals were provided. I think I spent $2 on sodas. It was a very "frugal" vacation in that regards. We were penalized because we were non-residents, so did pay more. But without my dad we would have paid less than $500, for the 3 nights. So not bad. Included, food, tent, activities, everything.

Oh yes, entrance fee to Yosemite was $20, but someone else paid. We all took one vehicle. & the shuttle there was awesome (free). So $20 to get in 7 people was NOT bad. The ice cream was very reasonable - came to $12 or something for the 7 of us as well.

Anyway, for now, I leave you with pictures... I have about 10 loads of laundry to do (dirt dirt dirt) and I return to work tomorrow.

P.S. We did get our stimulus and do I added $1800 to my savings on the left columns. $1k of it washed out the taxes I owed 4/15 and $800 went directly to our mid-term savings. May pull some out for car repairs.

Taking dh's car to the shop Friday - we could not fix ourselves since the battery (& connecting wires, etc.) were so corroded - will get some help.

Wouldn't you know, just as we packed up and started driving out to Yosemite, my car had a "check engine" light pop up. It was some other light we looked up and it said in the handbook "probably does not need towing - is a simple thing that needs fixing. Service soon." (in so many words, anyway). When we got to camp (made it - phew!) the electronic door locks stopped working AGAIN so that was all we could figure. So we have car issues to straighten out this week and next... Should have the van checked as well to make sure it is nothing more than the locks. Just glad we made it back without a tow. Both our vehicles are in limbo for today...

Anyway, the pics as promised...

Here was most of the view from our camp. Just in love with the place...



Looking down on swimming hole with water fall. This was a 20-minute trek from camp (complete with rattle snakes!!). But might as well have been Hawaii - was gorgeous.



BTW - I was the only adult to brave the cold water. Yes, it is melted snow. No, it really isn't any colder than the Pacific Ocean (more north by us anyway). So I didn't find it to be so bad. IT was hot so the water was refreshing. The rest of my group were wusses.

& Yosemite. There are no words...

I had gone once as a teen (maybe 15 years ago?)

Just WOW!

I had LM duty, and wasn't exactly feeling up to a big hike, so we took an easy "hike" to the lower falls. Was gorgeous, regardless.



& Half Dome:



All this, 4 hours from our driveway...

BM and grandpa, and dh did the Vernal Falls hike, which is the lower part of the Half Dome trek. (3 hours but BM is a major hiker - he tired out about the last 15 minutes so that one was exactly his speed).

I didn't get any pictures of the Vernal Falls (they hiked to the top of the waterfall) since I had LM and the camera. But having grandpa is like having a professional photographer wherever you go. I will no doubt have some breathtaking shots to share once I get copies of his pictures. As such, I Really didn't take many pictures this trip.

We figure we will make this an annual tradition for our family. In fact, I have said many times we aren't big vacation people. Though these last few years have been rather odd in that regard for us (vacation vacation vacation - with retiring parents who like to travel). But for now we have no plans for next year and I would just love to do a half week there again. (I don't think I am tough enough to camp much longer than 3 or 4 nights - hehe. Glad to be home and have a real shower...) But we should sign up for next year as early as possible, and hit early June when the waterfalls are still strong and the weather isn't so hot.

I think if we never vacationed anywhere else, I would be content.

But, for now it's back to reality...

Oh yeah, it is a bad sign when you have to turn on the a/c in April. Yikes. It was a hot weekend and we waited it out, but last night it was up to 85 in the house so I turned on the ac for a bit to cool off the upstairs for the kids, before bed. Good move since I later opened the window but the neighbors were LOUD last night, and quickly closed the window - hehe. The 10-15 minutes of a/c did the trick and kept the house comfortable for the night. It's 77 in here right now and quite comfortable, as long as I don't do too much work in the house. Was over 90 outside yesterday - ick. The summers where it doesn't hit 100 degrees until July, I can deal with. But sometimes it starts hitting in May, and I am getting scared it will be one of those LONG summers. Hopefully it will cool off for a bit - I really rather have 1 more month of no a/c! The electric bill has been so nice and low!

Yesterday was REALLY nice. Dh had wanted to go to the Scottish Festival, which was quite expensive really. I told him I didn't want to be too stingy and cheap, but since we are going to Monterey next weekend... So we decided to go to the zoo and Fairytale Town which we have memberships too. & you would be proud of us. We packed up a lunch. There happens to be a pond and park between the zoo and Fairytale Town and so we decided to hit FT first, stop and eat lunch ,and maybe run by the zoo for a bit - it is very small.

Anyway, the heat was a bit much as the day progressed, but overall a very cheap and fun day. Kids had a blast.

The little FT also had a promotion where they are going to put in a "yellow brick road" and you can buy an inscribed brick for $100. Would love to to so - I think that is cool. Will have to think what we want to inscribe in it. For a good cause and all.

Anyway, for the ever present truth that less is more to kids, I had to share this. Fairytale Town has a few farm animals and slides and stuff to climb in. A fancy playground I guess. But they have this thing called the "crooked mile" which is basically a little raised path that winds round and round. So when we got there I plopped down and let BM run through it about 10 times. It might as well be a fancy roller coaster as far as he is concerned - the kids just LOVE it. Dh and I have always scratched our head on that one - who knew something so simple could be like the main attraction? LOL.

Here's a glimpse:



& then where we had our picnic lunch:



& the big duck who tried to grab my food. I was a little scared of him, but started snapping his picture and he ran off - he didn't like it - LOL. I guess he was a duck - I don't know - some big fellas.



We figured we wore out the kids real good and they would nap all afternoon and maybe even sleep well at night, but the plan backfired. They went on nap strike and were extra grumpy to boot, plus we were exhausted. Oh well. Baby had another awful night. Ugh.

We actually went to the SF zoo last year once and it was quite cheap, but the food did us in. So we are thinking about it for this year - we just need to pack up a lunch and go enjoy - the zoo even has free parking. I guess gas will be the pricey part, but is such a nice zoo. All we have to do is rein in the food costs to make it a pretty affordable excursion.

We usually have 3 different milks in there - so you can see we have kids. Which reminds me the older one should graduate from whole milk soon - phew. Then we can buy 2% for them and non-fat for us. For now we have 1 of each as we all drink different milk. With less kinds, we can start buying more in bulk/on sale.

& Just wanted to point out that we are not big on tupperware. We generally store food in bowls with little plates as tops - wala. You can see a couple stacked in there - LOL. Actually, I have been trying hard to limit my foil and plastic bag use myself - I have been putting sandwiches and everything in tupperware for lunch -reusable - rather than wasting plastic bags. But I see a lot of foil in that fridge - ugh... I'll have to work with dh on getting the foil use down.

Well it's kind of bare actually, dh said he was shopping today - looks like we are low on everything.

Oh yeah & just had to share these shoes - I mean come on - who could resist. LOL. These aren't it exactly, but the wheels on the side say it all. The wheels got me. I haven't splurged on LM with cutesy stuff much at all, ever, so it was probably about time. Just had to share because I think they are so cute.

I am enjoying seeing the blogs come to life with so many pictures.

WE decided to go for a walk last night and I decided against dragging along the camera, but when I stepped outside I Saw this, so ran back in for it.

Picture #4


If you look really closely, the lower right-hand corner of the clouds has a faint rainbow.

& then the sunset progressed.







For the area, not the most spectacular sky or sunset. It gets really beautiful in the evening as a rule. & the sky has just been so beautiful with a brilliant blue and puffy white clouds in recent weeks as well. But overall a pretty nice evening. We stayed out for an hour and the rain cloud seemed to shift south, stayed clear of us - phew. I got some well-needed exercise. Have to enjoy before it starts getting hotter than Hades... But even so we are lucky to be near so many water ways, it tends to cool off in the evenings with a breeze, but not always. Yup, definitely enjoying mild weather.

In other news, I think we are going to give it a test with the $10k credit card debt, 0%, to earn interest in the bank. I think we just felt uncomfortable borrowing more money than we had. No particular reason, it is just a lot of money to mess with if something goes wrong. What? I don't know really. But the original $20k seems a bit much. I think I will try to get $12k, so even as I pay down the minimums, the $10k will earn interest. Dh has been firmly against investing our e-fund at all as is, but now he is like, maybe we should invest a bit. Is he crazy? LOL. We can take the money we earn from it and invest it - fine. Sometime I just don't know. Why look over a 5% "sure thing"? But anyway, we already expect to earn $500 this year from our rewards card, and now maybe $500 from this little ploy. I think after we give it a try we will try for another Citi Card and see if we can get another balance transfer. I have no idea how much they will give us, but I am sure they won't blink at $10k with our credit score. I think we will open one in my name and one in dh's name just so it won't really hit either of our credit scores very hard. Frankly, in our situation, I think it will help. Anyway, I think I am a little weirded out by the idea so we'll test it and get our little $50 gift card (woohoo). & if I don't regret it and just pay it back in a couple of months - LOL - we might try to borrow a little more. Free money here we come. We have been pondering it, and I just don't feel comfortable opening a lot of cards just for promos and how it could mess with your credit score. But if we can open 1 each, play the game, and close the cards without much of a blip to our credit score, then I am in!! Which I am sure we can. I just am not sure we can do this indefinitely. So I don't want to get too used to it. But all the same I feel quite pleased at the idea of making $1k off the credit cards in 1 year. Doubling our current returns. Well, maybe even tripling if we can get 2 cards at $10k. We'll see!

Not only does CitiBank have no fees and all that, and the gift card promo, etc. BUT the best part to me is just being able to get a check deposited directly to my money market account. I still do not trust the credit card companies enough to send a big negative balance to them I guess.

If you told me a year ago I would apply for $10 cc debt, I would have thought you were insane. Oh yeah - this is going to add to my challenge money - woohoo.

Oh anyway, here is the blog where I got the idea (below). I considered it carefully because I do not necessarily agree some of this bloggers' money-making ideas. For one, I can't see myself applying for a zillion cards just for free money and promos. It has got to affect your FICO signifcantly. But we'll see. I was also reading his step-by-step guide to investing in Treasuries, which was very useful and interesting, I do have to say. But just left me not seeing the point because I can make more in my money market with a lot less effort. But I will keep in mind for when times change. So I had to look at this cc idea a little more critically, and I still think it is good as long as you don't overdue it. So while I recommend the blog overall, I wouldn't do everything the guy suggests myself. I guess a reminder to consider things very carefully when it comes to finance.

ETA: Oh, to give the guy credit he seems pretty on top of the credit score thing - I just saw more of his replies on the subject). I guess the risk is not my thing - LOL.

Yes - for Citi the fees look like they are waived on most of the promo deals for most cards right now. But I will definitely let you know how it goes - will keep you updated.

http://www.mymoneyblog.com/how-to-make-money-from-0-apr-bala...