Carmel, the Sun and yet another photo on the beach

Okay, while I havent been updating my blog as much, I have been working with the boys on The Mystery Toy Blog, and I hope you have been keeping up with that. 

We headed up to Monterey and Carmel last weekend. I absolutely LOVED Carmel. I would love to go up for a quiet weekend by myself, with Fred, with friends. (ie without my kids, basically). It isnt a kids place.  But the stores, cafes and the beach just a few blocks down the road... it would be the perfect get away place! I have determined that Girls Getways are an urban myth. Like Bigfoot, you only hear about them and never actually seem . All the pictures you see have probably been photoshopped. But I could go to Carmel by myself with a good book for a weekend and never look back!

We just hit up the beach in Monterey, since we will be spending a little time there next again with the Harringtons soon. Cant wait for that! The boys LOVE the beach and could stay all day. They dig and play and get dirty. It was a long day: noon at Monterey beach, shopping, snacks/coffee and dinner in Carmel with sunset at the beach and hot chocolate on the car on the way home in the dark. 

Fred is off to Austin, TX and South by Southwest (aka SXSW) on official business. Im very excited for him and hope it is a great trip making lots of contacts and is everthing it needs to be. He will be back Monday and the kids are off school that day, so I hope they get to spend a little time with him before he heads back to work. 

The sun has dried up all the rain, and we are back to good weather. I have never experienced  weather like that, and it was really  getting to me. Foggy outside, foggy in the head. One rainy weekend we put on our gear and had watergun fights in the front yard.

Back to lots of sun and the 70s, although it is cold at night. We are on a super budget and have managed to cut quite a surprising bit out of monthly spending. Amazing what simply Not Driving Your Car can do for spending.  I only drive the car on Tues & Thurs. Then on the weekend for

 grocery shopping and if we take a road trip then. We spend a lot of time at the nearby parks (further park research to be reported on the boys blog) and at home. I get movies from the library and from RedBox ($1 a night & free on Mondays with a code) and Wii games from the library too. That has been keeping us entertained. Sounds kinda boring, but its not.  I also recorded tons of stuff from HBO on Tivo before we left Denver, and watch that too. Since have pretty basic cable here. No BBCA or HBO. Its part of my Californa Budget Deficit Plan. But unlike the Governator, I have it under control.

I picked up a few books for me at the library (actually Ive been on the waitlist for these books since we moved here) and look forward to reading while Fred is away. Still reading the Twilight series, like the rest of the middleschoolers, and the Outlander series. 

 <-- This is the boys having breakfast in the kitchen. I have been using Twitter a lot and really like it. I check it before I check my email, which says a lot. If you join I am @ambersa42 and Fred is @fredsa, send us  a TWEET or two.  My prediction is you'll be on

 Twitter sooner or later, its just a matter of time! 

While Fred is gone, my goal is to get Skyler riding his bike. So Ill

 let you know how that goes! As you can see I am in desperate need of a haircut. Ill find time for that and just find some random place next week. I cant have people I actually know seeing me like Grizzly Adam's wife. 

I end with yet another photo of the Sauer Family on a beach. This one is Carmel at sunset....