Gelato

Several years ago I had the opportunity of going to Europe. I was able to go to many different countries, see some historic sites, and eat some authetic food. One of my favorite foods was at this place in Florence, Italy. I know the outside doesn't look to impressive. You would never guess that this is what was inside. Freezers full of the best tasting gelato ever. Flavors ranging from authetic rice to pineapple, lemon, chocolate, raspberry and many many more. I think we were in Florence for three nights and we made sure that we went to Vivoli's every night. This was too good of stuff to not indulge in every night. This is how you got the Italian gelato from the world famous Vivoli's.

In a paper cup with a tiny spoon. You could get up to three flavors in a cup. My favorite was to get chocolate and a fruit flavor. I would then run my spoon down the middle and get a little bit of both. The perfect mixture. Here is a picture of me even enjoying the gelato on the not so clean street in front of Vivoli's.
The reason for this trip down memory lane? A new gelato shop named Bellisimo has opened near our home and I am absolutely hooked. Although it is no authetic Vivoli's, it is awfully close. The gelato is just as flavorful as I remember and there is a wide range of flavors. They don't have rice but said they have had many requests for it.

The shop is owned by a couple who were introduced to gelato and decided that they needed to open up a shop. I am so glad they did this. They make all their own gelato and all the fruit flavors are water based which is much better for my lactose intolerant husband who is addicted to ice cream. I have always liked ice cream but can never eat it in very big quantities. I love gelato and could eat it in very large quantities! It is like eating fresh fruit. So for all of you out there that want a fun thing to do this summer go check out this new gelato shop and we hope we see you there.

6 Months Old

Logan turned 6 months old on Saturday. I can't believe how the time flies. We took him to the doctor today and here are his stats:
16.1 pounds
26.25 inches long

Logan is now in the 25th percentile for his weight and the 50th percentile for his length and head circumference. He has really grown a lot lately. The doctor said he looked great otherwise. Logan is starting to sit up on his own now. In fact he can sit up for 5-10 minutes by himself now with the occasional fall over when he gets excited. We still have to watch him but the doctor said that is really good. Most 6 month olds are just starting to sit up with assistance. Go Logan!

He is still quite concerned about his reflux. This seems to be the story of our lives. Logan still has a hard time swallowing and often will lose his voice because of it. You can hear bubbles coming up his throat when he nurses and they just sound like they hurt. Therefore, we are going to try some Prevacid tablets and if those don't work we are going to go to Reglan. Reglan speeds up the rate at which the stomach empties itself into the intestines therefore helping less to come back up and cause less irritation in his esophagus. I have to admit it would be nice to have a less spitty baby. Logan can eat and 2 hours later will still spit up whatever he ate. I don't know why I try to dress him cute sometimes. He doesn't seem to upset when he spits up but it sure would be nice to get all this under control.

Logan has started to use his hands. He can now pick objects up and put them in his mouth. He is learning to put his binkie in his mouth by himself. He is sleeping about 9 hours straight every night. He used to wake up several times during the night and go right back to sleep, but now he sleeps all the way through. This has been so nice. It is amazing how much more you feel refreshed if your sleep doesn't get interrupted.

He loves to grunt and growl at you and is starting to laugh more and more. He loves it when you eat his tummy and put his hands above his head. He loves it when you make funny noises as well.

He has started eating lunch now as he decided a few weeks back that he wants nothing to do with the bottle. Therefore, we have added a lunch and put the milk in that. He seems perfectly content with that and has made our sitter's life better. With the addition of a lunch he has developed a new schedule. He wakes up at 7 and nurses. Then we feed him his solids at 8. He stays up till about 9 and then goes down for a nap that lasts 2-3 hours. He then eats lunch at 1 and takes another shorter nap. He then wakes up and plays and then takes a short nap before dinner. He eats at about 5 or 6 every night. Takes a half hour nap at 7, eats again at 9 and then goes to bed by 9:30. So he still takes quite a few naps. The ones in the evening are very short but keep him happy.

Logan has been such a joy to have and is really growing up. We love seeing him grow.

Father's Day Swim

Saturday morning Ben and I decided to finally go swimming with Logan. We went over to our local pool before the crowds got there. It was so much fun and not very busy at all.

Logan had a lot of fun. He really enjoyed kicking his legs in the water. He thought he was pretty cool.

He lasted for about an hour which we were suprised about. I thought he might get bored faster than that. It was fun to get out of the house and enjoy the weather and our family!

Tag Victim--My Home in Pictures

Carlee gave me a good ultimatium so I decided to particpate in this tag. However I must give the disclaimer that I am not as clean as all you other bloggers.

1. The Kitchen Sink

I love to keep the sink as clean as possible. I hate a dirty kitchen. It makes me feel very disorganized. I love my sign in the window sill that says "Attitude is everything. Pick a good one."

2. Toilet

Complete with cat. She wanted her dinner and followed me upstairs. She thinks she needs to eat a ton. She will do many things to get your attention to feed her.

3. Fridge

I love my fridge. Perhaps because it houses all the yummy things I like to eat. Notice the chocolate raspberry torte on the top shelf we made for father's day. Yum!

4. What are your kids doing?

Sleeping of course except I am not going to take a picture of him cause I don't want to wake him up.

5. Favorite Room

I love our back room in our house. This is where Ben and I spend 90% of our time. Notice the cat again, still trying to get me to feed her, and the dog toys.

6 Laundry Room

7. Dirtiest Room

This room should win the dirtiest room award. All you other fellow bloggers don't know the meaning of dirty. This is Ben's office, when he can open the door to get in it. I don't know what else to say besides he is an artist. I bought him a sign for this room that says "I am not messy. Just creative." I am always asking Ben to clean this room up. I am not sure what all you can find in this room. Needless to say we usually keep the door closed.

8. Self Portrait

Trying to look happy about this picture at such a late hour.

9. Dream Vacation

I would have to say a cruise again would be great but I would probably love going back to Austria and staying in a small town. I absolutely loved the mountains there and would love to go spend more time. I would also love to go to Africa and go on a safari.

Hope you enjoyed the tour and aren't too scared to ever visit. I promise I would clean it up!

Music Time

Almost every day Ben takes Logan into our front room and plays his guitar for him. He calls it music time. Logan loves to just sit and listen to Ben. His favorite song is a "Nothing Else Matters" by Metalica. He also enjoys "Danny Boy" the Eric Clapton version and "Hey there Delilah" by Plain White Tees.

He loves it when Ben picks the strings. Logan has even reached out to strum it himself. I love watching Ben play his guitar. I loved it when he would play his guitar to me when we were dating. Since we have gotten married, he hasn't played as much. I love that he is playing more and sharing it with Logan. He really is so good and I think music is a great thing for kids.

Here are some pictures of Ben playing to him. I think Logan's face in the second picture shows you how much he enjoys music time. He looks so content!

Mt. Rushmore

Over memorial day weekend, Ben and I went to Mt. Rushmore.

I have never been there and it had been several years since Ben had gone. We drove the 12 hour drive there in the family motor home. It was nice to have a little room to stretch. I was worried how Logan was going to do on such a long car ride, but as always, he was a trooper. He just mostly slept. Ben and I had to feed him his solids in the motor home which I must say takes some talent. Logan's cousins did a great job of entertaining him when we stopped. As you can see from the picture, he just loved them. I think he enjoyed having some other kids around.

We camped in a cabin just a little ways away from Mt. Rushmore. It was really nice even though we were a little way from everyone else's sites.

The first day we went to Mt. Rushmore, obviously. It was fun to see it and learn more about how it was made. I didn't know that Jefferson was supposed to be to the left of Washington but the rock was too soft so they had to move him. I also didn't know that Mt. Rushmore isn't all the way complete. The main architect of the mountain passed away before it was fully finished. His son took over but because we had then entered war they cut funding and never finished it to its original model. The original model had the shoulders and chests of the presidents to be carved in to the mountain.

Next we went to see Wind Cave. This cave is different than many caves as it doesn't have the typical cave formations because it is really dry. It does have what they call boxwork formations which are unique to this cave. It was fun to go walk through this cave. I carried Logan most of the time and he was just looking around. At one point we all stopped to look up and Logan looked up with us. Here we are at the entrance to the cave.

We also took a drive on the Needles Scenic highway. There were several tunnels that were so small you could touch the rock when you went through it. It was a beautiful day and we got out at several different points to take pictures. Some of these are distant shots of Mt. Rushmore. If you focus really hard you can see the faces in the back.

We also went to see Mt. Rushmore cave. This is a publicly owned cave instead of government owned. It was interesting to see how law they were on conserving the inside of the cave. This cave had more traditional cave formations.

My favorite thing we did was go to a night program at Mt. Rushmore. They show a little video about why each of the presidents are carved on the mountain. Then they light up the faces while playing the national anthem. It was very patriotic and they showed all the places we had just been to in DC. Lastly, they had all those who have served our country come down to retire the flag. They invited people to come down and represent those who have passed on. I tried to go down to represent my grandma who served in the US Air Force in World War II, however, I didn't make it down in time. They had everyone introduce themselve and tell what area they served in. Although I didn't make it down I hope my grandpa knows my thoughts for his service were there. Because of the lighting I wasn't able to get a good picture of this so you will just have to take my word for how cool it is.