**Just redeemed the last of our current one-time credit rewards. (& received that $500 check already).

I will have to tally them all up some time. Off the to of my head, I believe we are up to $1700. & the year is young...

I also received a $0.30 statement credit on my regular American Express - some reward - I have no idea why. I must have spent $6 on some rotating category that I didn't pay attention to (because I figured I wasn't spending in that category). ??? No idea what the category was.

**We did manage to take some nice family photos yesterday. Found a Japanese garden in San Jose that we didn't even know existed. My parents live next to some beautiful gardens, but the gardens were closed (???), so forced us to find another solution.

The place was just BEAUTIFUL! I haven't seen the pictures, but my dad will bring me a CD tomorrow. I am going to re-print their anniversary photo book with a few minor changes, a few asked-for pictures I could not find, and will close with one of these "family reunion" pictures.



**We went to the amusement park where dh and I met - probably the first time I've gone since I worked there (15+ years) and first time for the kids.

I am glad we scoped it out because they added a "second water park" - but to be frank they just threw in a couple of water slides and market it as "2 parks in one." I am less enthused to get season passes just for their water park, in the future, (so we could skip water park season passes at other places), but admittedly it would work. It is a nice addition.

Six Flags last year was such an awful experience. There was just a lot that annoyed us, and I thought it was a sign of the times. In the end, this park is just infinitely more laid back. I just looked up out of curiosity and the water raft ride that the kids could ride by themselves at 46 inches or so at this park had a 56 inch minimum requirement at Six Flags.

In fact, the kids could ride ALL of the water slides unsupervised. Even the 6 year old. LOVED it. This worked out because it was a beautiful day, but a bit of a chill in the air. Was not interested in getting wet. So we sent the kids alone on all the water stuff. Of course they did not mind the cold.

Actually, we hadn't even planned to do the water park thing, but once we were inside there were several kiddie water play areas, and we realized they didn't need us for the big slides. I just happened to have swim suits, towels and flip flops in the car - mostly because we had planned to go to the beach last weekend and never made it. It really made the day - glad we had them!

**I found a coupon online that saved us $40 on admission. We somehow didn't even eat lunch in the park. ??? Don't ask me how. I still have what feels like a lifetime supply of cotton candy. The bags were just HUGE. Anyway, we really didn't spend much beyond admission - just ate dinner outside the park when we left.

**WE are home now, and I just noticed that salmon was on sale - about 30% off. Our grocery spending is so slim this month, too. So we will probably pick up some sushi and salmon fillets.

I told dh I would make meatballs today since we got home too late last night. He wanted some for leftovers the day we get back from camp. It's a simple recipe that uses frozen meatballs, so I get off pretty easy.

Dh is working Scholastic all day. Will work for books. (Gives most of them back to the school and teachers).

**Not overly looking forward to camp. We got a bit of a cold spell. It's going to be *Brrrrrrr.* I am sure regardless we will have fun. Just won't be a lot of lounging in the sun for me.