El Lay

This year's HaggisFam summer vacation took us to The City of Angels. We had DVC points that we had to use before the end of July, so we checked into Disney's Paradise Pier Resort and took advantage of it's central location to be turistas for a few days. We are hoping to be headed east next summer, so if we were going to go check out the glitterati and PCH 1, this was our shot.

Here we go!!!

Last time we stayed at the Paradise Pier there was a giant Christmas tree in this spot

We spent our first afternoon and evening enjoying the pool and shopping at Downtown Disney. A stop at Marceline's Confectionary for candy apples is always on Den's must-do list and was our first stop in DD.

Dinner at The Rainforest Cafe. I wonder how many more years Paige will humor me and wear these hats?

Lego Hulk!

The view of the fireworks at California Adventure is nice from DD

We were dragging a bit the next morning, so we trekked back to DD for a Starbucks fix before......

The ULTIMATE in cheesy Hollywood tourism - The Star Tour!

The Coliseum

 Staples Center

The Hollywood Sign

The view of the Hollywood Sign from Mulholland Drive

LA

Ben Stiller's house! He was on the porch!!! I am such a nerd.

 Katy Perry's house

After driving through the Hollywood Hills, we headed into Hollywood proper for some more cheesy touring.

After lunch in Hollywood, it was back on the bus and on to Beverly Hills

Mom, Chanel!!! Take my picture! How on earth Summer knows about Chanel, I don't know, but hey, at least she has good taste

Yo homes to Bel Air! For the record, Bel Air is BEAUTIFUL.

Looked at my kingdom, I was finally there. To sit on my throne as the Prince of Bel Air. Yep, you are looking at THE house from Fresh Prince

I'm sure I took pics of these houses because they belonged to a star I like, but I have already forgotten whose they are

Except for this one. This one belongs to Julia Roberts

And this one... Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith. Interestingly enough this house is right around the corner from the Fresh Prince house

 After a sufficient amount of Celeb stalking, it was on to Den's most-looked-forward-to part of the tour. Hello Santa Monica!

They only gave us and hour, and we jam packed it with ice cream on the Pier, a ride on the roller coaster, and our toes in the sand. 

Next and final stop - Venice Beach. Definitely not our scene. There was, however, a 70 year old muscle man in a red Speedo walking around with his own theme music playing

 This playground was our favorite part of Venice Beach

The next day, we hopped in the car and headed south to San Diego for a trip to Sea World. 

Our final day in Cali was spent in total relaxation at Huntington Beach. We love Huntington Beach. It was quiet and since it was a Wednesday morning, it wasn't even that crowded. 

It wouldn't be a HaggisFam beach trip without a sand car!

Last night in Cali and we had a beautiful view of Disney's fireworks from our hotel balcony

We had such an amazing time. It was so nice to get away from the Tucson heat for a few days and reconnect with the ocean. We came back so refreshed and rejuvenated. I already miss it. 

Menu Plan Monday Meets Bountiful Baskets

A few weeks ago, we joined a Food Co-Op called Bountiful Baskets. The Market on the Move season has come to an end and I ran across a link to BB in a Facebook group that I joined, so I thought I would give it a go. I am SO glad that I did. I have been in a meal planning slump lately, and getting a "goodie bag" of produce every week has really gotten me out of it. The premise is pretty simple. Every Monday I go on their website and select they type of basket I want (regular or organic) and any add-ons like breads, granola, themed baskets, etc that I might be interested in. Thus far, I have just been getting the regular basket and the only add-on I've tried was a gallon of organic olive oil. Anyway, I pay my $17.50 and then on Saturday go to the designated location at the designated time and I pick up my TWO LAUNDRY BASKETS full of delicious produce, one of fruits and one of vegetables. It's been so awesome!

This week's basket included bananas, nectarines, a lot of lemons, mangoes, grapefruit, pineapple, green leaf lettuce, Roma tomatoes, corn, celery, and spaghetti squash

I based my menu for the week off of what I got in the basket, which GREATLY reduces my grocery bill. Here's what we're having.

Breakfast
Week before last, in a moment of weakness, I caved into the "Mom, we always eat such healthy food, can we please please please, just this once get some junky cereal? It's my birthday week." Safeway had double pack of Family Sized Cinnamon Toast Crunch on sale for $5.99. After coupons, I think it was like $3, so it came home with us. The girlies have been in hog heaven. They will be finishing off the second box for breakfast this week. If it runs out before the week does, well, I have some bananas from last week's box that are just about ready for Whole Wheat Banana Nut Muffins. Click on the link to see the recipe. That being said, the only thing I will need to buy this week for breakfast is a couple of gallons of milk and some juice for Den.

Lunch and Snacks
This is my first time posting a Menu Plan Monday in a while, so I will explain why I lump these two together. My very favorite lunch ideas site is called This Lunch Rox. I have been using it now for a couple of years and the girlies haven't complained of a boring lunch since. The only problem I ran into was that Jamie puts a lot of stuff in there and food was being wasted. My solution was to also use her ideas for morning and afternoon snacks, and allow the girlies to pick and choose what they want to eat when. It has VASTLY cut down on the amount of processed snacks that the girlies were eating. I'm not a total Food Nazi, and I do occasionally add in a few of the girlies' favorite prepackaged snacks, but when they're gone, they're gone, so they have learned to make them last.  So, lunch this week will be Peanut Butter Roll-Ups (with or without banana), sliced tomatoes, cucumber "chips" (cucumber sliced thinly with my Pampered Chef crinkle cutter), pineapple, nectarines, granola bites, pretzels, and almond flour cookies, which I will actually make for dessert on Sunday night and then we nibble on what's left for the rest of the week. I am using the lemons and grapefruit from my basket, along with some limes and herbs I have in the fridge to infuse some water to go with our lunches and I got some yummy Organic Pineapple Island Breeze tea for my birthday that I will make as well. I'll have to buy cucumbers, brown rice crispy cereal, peanut butter (we're out), and pretzels when I go to the store, but that's it.

Dinner
We are doing easy peasy dinners this week since Den is out of town.

1. Apple Spice Buttermilk Pancakes, sausage, and fruit from the basket
2. BLT's on Ezekiel toast, pretzels, and fruit from the basket
3. Eggs, bacon, and Ezekiel toast
4. Spaghetti squash with beef and quinoa meatballs and marinara and a green salad
5. 35/35 BBQ chicken, corn on the cob, and a green salad

I have a meeting one night, so the girlies will be eating over at a friend's house and I will be having a yummy chocolate Advocare shake for dinner and Monday nights are almost alway leftovers night. All I will have to buy for dinner this week is some parsley and a jar of marinara sauce (Shhhh....)

Let me stress that this is NOT a normal week for us. I have a lot of things on hand from some previous couponing trips and a lot of the things I am making this week rely on staples. That being said, I am really looking forward to a less-than-$50-on groceries week!

Countdown to Summertime - A Look Back At The Last Couple Of Months

Out Like A Lamb?

March continued to be a busy month here at Casa De Haggis. Spring officially arrived and the desert is in full bloom. While the rest of the country was still getting snowed on, we were enjoying glorious temps in the high 70's. As usual, we packed as much fun as we could into 31 days.

We went to the zoo to see the lion cubs, who were SO cute.

We had a great time at the DM50 Picnic, which included cotton candy, hot dogs, snow cones, a petting zoo, a tour of the Boneyard, and...

Sticking to the wall!

Paige submitted her Family History Project that she has been working on all year and it was on display along with her Science Fair project, a miniature model of the Globe Theater, some geometric origami, and a lot of her artwork at Emily Gray Junior High's annual Academic Showcase

Not to be outdone, Summer shared her stories with her reading buddy at Agua Caliente Elementary's Young Authors' Celebration

We got to spend some quality fun time with this little guy while his mom was on bedrest waiting for the arrival of his little sister, Caroline.

Paige got all dressed up to volunteer at the "Senior" Prom at her best friend's church. They had a blast with the older folks from the church.

As a special treat my friend Stephanie's son Travis stopped through Tucson on his T-6 Cross Country. We treated his to some authentic Tucson - Sonoran Dogs at El Guero Canelo on the south side.

Summer turned 11

And had a birthday party (more on that one later)

 We spent Spring Break camping, hiking, and relaxing at Kartchner Caverns State Park in Benson (again, more about that one later)

Daisy and Diesel endured a bath (this is not really a significant March occurence, but they HATE baths and the looks on their faces are priceless)

Summer's birthday and Spring Break warrant posts all their own, but I'll have to get to those later. The dryer is singing the "Come Empty Me" song. We look forward to as fun an April as we had a March.

MDS Walk and The Zoo at Reid Park

On Saturday, the Haggis fam was so very privileged to be able to join Team Anjalyn in the Tucson MDS Walk at Reid Park. Anjalyn Lovendahl was my hairdresser and dear friend Sarah's sister-in-law. She was diagnosed with MS several years ago and was very active with the Tucson Walk. Tragically, Anjalyn was killed in a car accident in January at the age of 25. Anjalyn's passing left a huge hole in the MDS Walk organization and Sarah quickly stepped up to fill her shoes. Team Anjalyn was the second highest fundraiser for the walk. It was an honor to join such a great group of people for such a worthy cause

Sarah gave such a beautiful testament to Anjalyn's life and mission

After the walk, since we were already at Reid Park, we decided to pop on over to the zoo to see the new lion cubs. Unfortunately, we just missed them. The zookeepers had just put them up to all Shombay some sunshine.

The giraffes put on quite a display for us. One of my favorite parts about the Reid Park Zoo is the proximity to which you can come to the animals. The giraffes are very sociable and will come very close. 

Photo Bomb by the Zoo's yearling giraffe

The Zoo's newest additions, two young brown bears, had already settled in for their afternoon siesta

The elephants' area of the Zoo has tons of interactive features

The Zoo's yearling elephant calf

Squirrel Love!