If you’re thinking about putting the brakes on your family vacation because you’re worried about your wallet, consider a surprisingly easy way to save a few hundred dollars on that summer getaway: the travel package. While most people book their flight, hotel and car rental separately, it’s actually way cheaper to opt for a vacation package — up to $300 cheaper, even.

Get More Bang for Your Buck

Vacation packages are the best way to save on travel no matter where you decide to go. And we know that the destination can be hard enough to narrow down. But vacation packages really allow you to stretch your travel dollar further, and are also way more convenient than booking and keeping track of separate itineraries.

A vacation package can make a huge difference in savings for a single vacationer or an entire family looking to get away. And frankly, who doesn’t want to get more value out of their vacations? Bundle your flight and hotel and save.

Opt for an Online Travel Agency

Check with third-party travel sites. There are lots of great online travel agencies out there that allow you to choose your preferences using a vacation package finder widget. These handy little helpers take all the guesswork out of planning your trip and offer terrific deals on travel packages at the same time. Plus, user-friendly tools allow travelers to customize their packages with specific flights, hotels, rental cars and even attractions and tours — a great way to ensure a trip that best suits your needs. And don’t forget to look for specials like Travelocity promotional codes to lock in some serious savings.

Online travel agencies provide some of the best offers, often accompanied by Best Rate Guarantees, which promise you the best prices out there. Some will even offer to reimburse you for the difference in price if you find a cheaper offer elsewhere.

Check with your favorite airline

Many airline carriers and hotels offer some pretty substantial savings on travel packages. Scour their sites for last-minute deals and offers on packages first. No luck? You can also get ahead of the savings game by choosing to sign up for travel alerts that will let you know via email when the prices drop on specific destinations. So if you’ve got your eye on Hawaii this summer, sign up let them do the work for you. When you get an alert, take advantage of packaging your flight and hotel together to capitalize on the savings versus booking separately. This is a great way to avoid extra fees.

Plan Ahead With Trip Tools

Many online sites allow you to plan now and pay later. Once you’re set on a flight, hotel and rental car, look for the option to add extras like airport shuttles, tickets for local attractions, city tours and more. Usually, all you have to do is select your desired travel features and then print the email confirmation and online voucher for redemption when you’re ready. You’ll also find resources like maps, weather alerts and trip-planning tips to help make your vacation a memorable one. It’s an easy way to plan ahead and concentrate on the important things, like having a great time.

Vacation packages are one of the biggest money-savers when it comes to travel. You’ll not only save time and cash with great offers on vacation packages, but you’ll enjoy a fantastic little getaway with the family, as a couple or solo without wrestling with buyer’s remorse. When you book as a package deal, you’re more likely come out on top savings-wise.

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3. Play Around in Memphis

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More than just the home of the blues and barbeque, Memphis gives you plenty of ways to play around, with fun things to do no matter who you are or what you like. Of course, if you’re into Elvis, rock-and-roll and mouth-watering ribs, you’ve got to check out Graceland, Sun Studios, and the Rendezvous. But Memphis has much more to offer than this holy trinity of southern culture, with enough to see, do and eat to make it the perfect location for your next long weekend getaway. 
    The families out there (or the wild at heart) should be sure to check out the Memphis Zoo, one of only four U.S. zoos with giant pandas. Recently ranked the #1 zoo in the U.S. by TripAdvisor.com, the Memphis Zoo lets you get up close and personal with the animal kingdom. And with the recent addition the Northwest Passage, home to Polar bears in a see-through underwater exhibit, and the zoo’s newest section, Teton Trek, kids and adults alike are certain to have a blast.
    Don’t let your midtown experience stop at the zoo; the Cooper-Young and Overton Square neighborhoods are just down the street. Ask a local Memphian where to find a tasty bite to eat, great local music and ice cold beer, and they will probably direct you here. Speaking of beer … the environmentally conscious visitor can enjoy a locally brewed beer by Ghost River Brewing or walk through the natural landscape and educational facilities at the Lichterman Nature Center.
    Memphis has museums for just about everything. From the Civil Rights Museum, Cotton Museum and Fire Museum in downtown to the Brooks Museum, Children’s Museum of Memphis and the Pink Palace Museum further east, the number of places to have fun while you learn are as bountiful as the barbeque restaurants. Families, friends, sports fans, history buffs, self-proclaimed food critics – Memphis has everything you need to keep everyone happy.
     So when you visit Memphis, stay a few extra days. Even the locals don’t run out of things to do. And to make it easy, memphistravel.com is launching a new travel guide to help you plan your next vacation. Simply choose from a list of interests and you’ll be given a sample itinerary with lots of great ideas. You can also register for a chance to win one of twelve trip packages that include tours, gift certificates to Memphis’ favorite restaurants, hotel stays and more. Go to itinerary.memphistravel.com to get started.

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Please let me know if you experience any issues with the upgrade. Thanks

I also found a sweet new plugin to try, for wordpress backups. I lets your send your backup files to dropbox

The plugin is called wp Time Machine. I still have to do some more testing. it showed the backup completed, but I don’t see the files in my dropbox

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He’s already more aggressive with his toys and play and he gets into everything. He just won’t sit still. He’s all boy and I love him.

Wednesday night he was walking toward a toy fell and split his lip really good. I picked him up to check on him and he was gushing blood. Once Melissa wiped his face she saw how bad the cut was and said we have to take him to the ER.

The ER crew was great with him, thank you North Ottawa Community Health 

He ended up getting five stitches on the outside and two on the inside (from his tooth biting though his lip)

Here’s a picture of him the next day. He’s doing fine with the stitches and gets them out next week. They don’t seem to bug him.

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• WordPress › Postie « WordPress Plugins – Postie offers many advanced features for posting to your blog via e-mail, including the ability to assign categories by name, included pictures and videos, and automatically strip off signatures. It also has support for both imap and pop3, with the option for ssl with both. For usage notes, see the other notes page
• Pagetest – where web sites go to get FAST! – This tool lets you test web pages that are directly accessible as an URL from the Internet. If you need to test a page inside of a firewall or something more complicated than a web page (an authenticated product like webmail for example) please download the desktop version of PageTest which this is based on.
• WordPress › Author Advertising Plugin « WordPress Plugins – This plugin allows blog admins to create a revenue sharing program utilising one of the many advertising programs out there i.e Yahoo, Google Adsense, Amazon, Allposters etc. It can also be used as a banner manager, author photo/website widgets.. actually it has about a zillion uses. Give it a try and lemme know if you use it for anything really groovy.
• Add Flickr Creative Commons Photos to WordPress Posts -iflickr – iFlickr is a wordpress plugin that allows you to easily find free creative commons images on flickr and insert them into your blog post while automatically putting the attribution link underneath.
• Essential Caching Plugins for WordPress – Caching is a technique that can improve the performance of your web page by transparently storing data such that future requests for that data can be served faster. Caching your WordPress blog can effectively optimize the performance of your blog even during high traffic peaks.
• Buzz-Charts – we analyze individual Google Buzz communication

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Image by JacobMetcalf via Flickr

It wasn’t the service or the technology, it was the cost. We where paying about $110 for TV and internet. The DVR was good, but we really didn’t use the DVR extender downstairs much and since we are working the Dave Ramsey plan we needed to cut the bills. So we moved back to Charter for internet and basic cable, now we are down to $40 dollars a month.

Much better, but we did add Netflix since we can use it to stream to both the Wii and Xbox 360 for $8.99 a month. Netflix doesn’t have current season TV shows but there is enough there between older TV and movies. The streaming though the Wii has worked great!!

The biggest thing we still miss is Fox News, especially Glenn Beck, and PTI.

Hulu just announced their paid subscription service (still in beta) for $9.99. Well they do have the current season of a lot of TV shows, I don’t think they carry Glenn or PTI and they currently don’t support the Xbox 360 (coming later) or the Wii.

Time will tell, but I hope between Netflix and Hulu its a new way to watch TV at a lower price.

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Image via Wikipedia

Live around or plan on heading toward New Jersey?

If so make sure you stop by Morey’s Piers in Wildwoods, New Jersey. They have it all, two beachfront water parks, three piers with all sorts of rides, and some awesome resort accommodations.

Raging waters is fun for the whole family including waterslides, two children’s play areas, as well as picnic and grille areas.

Ocean Oasis Water park and beach club is more of a resort experience, children are welcome, but here you will find free wireless internet, private and family cabanas and relaxing hammocks. But they still have a 1000 foot lazy river and plenty of crazy waterslides.

After a fun day in the water make sure you check out the Ghost Ship at Morey’s Piers With 15,000 sq ft of terror, Ghost Ship promises to be an instant Boardwalk icon, it is a mesh of live actors, stunts, and animatronics that has guests …screaming! “The Ghost Ship is worth a trip to Wildwood!” comments one facebook fan.

.

Sponsored Review

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image source: http://www.annarbor.com/

When you’re moving to a new area with your family, finding all the resources you need, and doing it gracefully, can be quite the challenge. There’s also the potential culture shock of a new region with new friends and activities- sometimes your self esteem can take a blow because you feel lonely or like you don’t fit in. You need to make sure that you can find your way around, so you can get the things you need to maintain the lifestyle you want, and become a part of new communities to keep your personal mojo flowing. Here are a few great tips to easily navigate and start your life again in a new place.
Don’t Be Afraid to Ask

Why did you move to the area? The most frequent answer to this question is the move happened because of a new job. If this is the case, your job provides a network of new acquaintances who will provide a foundation for your social network in the new region. Don’t be hesitant to ask your new colleagues about the area, since most people are excited to talk about the activities, places, and groups that they have come to enjoy. Don’t expect a tour guide, but don’t be afraid to ask your new work associates or neighbors about their preferred areas and activities.

You can also expand your social network dramatically in the new area while discovering some fun activities. One of the best ways to go about this is to continue in your old hobbies while pursuing new personal interests. You can look for groups that are engaged in volunteer work, music, hiking, sports, or any number of other activities. Not only do you get the chance to become a part of these communities, but you have more people to help guide you in your new area. These groups can often be found through bulletin boards, online classifieds, or through simple web searches.

Check Out Bulletin Boards

Most communities have a number of “public bulletin boards.” These bulletin boards can help you find out about new restaurants, things to do in the area, groups that are starting, or any number of other things that might interest you. You can find bulletin boards of this nature at local coffee houses, music stores, libraries, community centers, and churches. In addition to providing online bulletin boards, some cities have local publications that highlight many of these same things.

Go High Tech

One easy way to start exploring is by conducting a Google Maps or Map Quest search for the sort of business you’re trying to find. There are also several major websites, including the city search guides and the uptake “things to do” search, which allow you to effectively check out the most prominent activities, tasty restaurants, and areas of interest in your new region. You can use tools like these to fill your weekends and expand your network.

You’ll also need to find a doctor, a dentist, babysitters, lawn care specialists, and other service providers in your new region. You can check out web review sites, online classifieds, and your insurance provider’s “approved” list for your region to find these new and important service providers.

Keep all these in mind, and when that day comes to move your family for a job re-location- or simply just relocating yourself- you’ll know how to navigate and stay on top of yourself without feeling low or out of place.

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