It’s peach season here in the South!  YUM!  I love fresh peaches.  And I LOVE my ice cream maker.  So when I found this recipe in a Taste of Home magazine, it was the perfect combination.  It was so easy and AMAZING!  I’ve made 3 batches of it so far   It’s very creamy and smooth.  And if you don’t have fresh peaches, I bet you could use canned, just decrease the sugar a bit and make sure they are well drained.  Let me know how you like it!!

• 4 medium peaches, peeled and sliced
• 1 envelope unflavored gelatin
• 1 cup fat-free milk
• 1/2 c. sugar
• Dash of salt
• 2 1/2 c. low fat vanilla yogurt
• 2 t vanilla extract

Place peaches in a blender, cover and process until blended.  Set aside.  In a small saucepan, sprinkle gelatin over milk and let stand for 1 minute.  Heat on low, stirring until gelatin is completely dissolved.  Remove from heat, and stir in sugar and salt until sugar is dissolved.  Pour into large bowl, and add peaches, yogurt and vanilla.

Transfer to cylinder of ice cream freezer, and let process for 30 minutes or so.  It will be the consistency of soft-serve, and DELICIOUS!  Transfer the rest to another container and place in freezer.

One of the (many) highlights of the trip was Carlsbad Caverns.  It was AMAZING.  Even the kids really enjoyed our visit there.  Pictures do not do it justice, so if you’ve never been… you just have to experience it for yourself.  Analise’s favorite part of the nearly mile-long walk in the underground caverns was Fairyland.  She still recognizes it in the photos.  And of course, the evening bat flight from the cave entrance was awesome.  Definitely worth planning an overnight stay to see that unique sight.

The Grand Canyon was, of course, beautiful.  But it was HOT, the kids had been up early, there were lots of people there, and my kids wanted to play on the rocks, which was a little too nerve-wracking with the drop to the canyon floor just feet away.  Analise had a meltdown after disobeying us by jumping on the rocks, and so we left after about 20 minutes.  Definitely not a GRAND experience.  As Brian reminded me, the kids just can’t grasp how huge it is.  It’s awe-inspiring for us, but they can’t understand the depth and the beauty of it.  Next time, I’d like to plan to be there at sunset, as I’ve heard that’s a beautiful experience.

After a disappointing experience at the Grand Canyon, we had a long afternoon with whiny kids in the car.  Hot, tired and hungry, with grumpy parents, and we were driving 4 hours to Las Vegas.  Food was many miles between, our windshield caught a rock and cracked, and at some point, Brian mentioned maybe I’d better check our reservation in Las Vegas online (on my phone) as he had a feeling he might have made it for the wrong night.  ?!?!?

We had booked the hotel through Expedia (for a lower price than the conference rate, though it was the same hotel!) months in advance, and actually before we knew the schedule of Brian’s conference.  After battling intermittent internet on my phone, we realized that indeed… it was Sunday evening, we were headed for Vegas, and our hotel reservation was not until Monday, but Brian had to present at the conference on Monday morning.  ARG!   More phone problems, dealing with customer service, finding out the hotel rate was twice what we’d paid, and so we finally settled at Starbucks to calm our frazzled nerves and use their internet so Brian could find us another hotel.

He ended up booking us a night at the Desert Rose Resort, just off the strip and less than a block from where we’d be staying the next two nights, at the Monte Carlo, for the conference.   I was a bit irritated about having to stay one (short) night in one place, then move to another.  But once we arrived, we very nearly canceled our other reservations to stay at the Desert Rose.  It was AMAZING!  Full kitchen, huge king bedroom, separate from the spacious living/dining room, delicious full continental breakfast, free wireless (as compared to $15 a day at the MC), 2 pools.  It was awesome.  Highly, highly recommend it, and if we ever go back, I won’t stay anywhere else.  Back to the trip to Vegas…  Now the experience is comical, and turned out to have many blessings in it, but man, was it a long end to a frustrating day!

So we set out for the last couple hours of the drive from Arizona to Vegas, via the Hoover Dam.  I was excited to see the Dam, as I’d never been there.  But we’d been way-laid for a couple hours, and it was going to be dark.  We thought we wouldn’t be able to see anything.  Much to our surprise, the dam was well lit, and there was construction going on for the new Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge.  It is INCREDIBLE!   What a feat of engineering!  And the Dam is amazing too.  Seeing it at night was really different, but still very cool.  And it was 109 degrees outside at 9pm!  Crazy!

Ok, more thoughts on Vegas and the California part of the trip another evening.  Enjoy a few photos… Click on the first one and it will open in a small window and you can click through them all.

These have made it into the top tier of my “most used recipes”.   I tried them about a year ago, and when I want a GOOD fluffy blueberry muffin, this is the best.  Recently, I loaned out my recipe card, and I had to search and search all over the internet this morning to track this exact recipe down.  So I’m posting it here for my own (frequent!) personal use, and for all those of you that love a good muffin.  (I like to give credit when I can, and this was first posted at MomAdvice.com.  She’s got a picture to tempt you even more, but the link is no longer valid. So whoever came up with this recipe… thanks!)

Bodacious Blueberry Muffins

• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1/3 c sugar
• 2 t baking powder
• 1/4 t salt
• 1 beaten egg
• 3/4 c milk
• 1/4 c oil
• 1 t vanilla
• 1 c blueberries

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.  Mix wet ingredients in a bowl, and gently stir both together just until mixed.  Add blueberries.  Place in greased muffin tins and bake at 400 for 25 min. (12 muffins)

Crumb topping

• 1/2 c packed brown sugar
• 1/8 c (2 T) flour
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• 1 T softened butter

Mix together until it resembles cornmeal.  Top muffins before baking. (Makes enough for 2 batches)

Analise pulled out her lacing cards this afternoon, which she hasn’t played with in months… or maybe even since Grandma Sandy was here last year!  She said, “It’s been like a week since I played with these!”  She’s just finally caught on to the go up from the bottom/go down from the top to “sew”.  I was impressed.

She was really excited about the lacing cards, though, and said, “I’m going to sew with Grandma Sandy! And you’re going to… do chores!”  Haha.  Sounds like fun.  Maybe Grandma Sandy and I can at least work in a trip to Kohl’s around all my chores…

(This post is going to be filled with randomness, as that’s the status of my mind today, this week, this month… come to think of it, this year!)

Analise has also reached another wonderful developmental milestone.  She hopped on a swing, got herself going, and started pumping her legs, swinging completely independently.  Honestly, this is an exciting achievement!  It means that my work on the playground just got much easier… or at least divided in half.  Between potty-training and swinging, it’s serious freedom for a mom

I do have pictures from our Out West Adventure in the works.  At the moment, it’s an open folder on my desktop with my favorites.  But currently, there are more than 80 of them, not counting Corrie’s and Michelle’s from our visits with them.  I’ll try to pare it down to less than 50 for your enjoyment   Actually, I’ve got coupons for photobooks that expire soon, and so that may happen before they get uploaded here…  Or not.

But Grandma Sandy’s coming tomorrow, and we’re going to have a great visit with her this next week!

Today is the big day for Analise — her first day of school. I just got back from dropping her off. Everything went smoothly, and she was excited when she saw her teacher and ran over to sit with the other kids who had already arrived.