ci vediamo Sicilia!

We are at the end of our summer holiday in Sicily. This afternoon Gio and I will head to Catania do some sight seeing and head EARLY in the morning to the airport (our flight is at 7am). It has been nice to relax by the sea side and see how the Italians all leave their cities as ghost towns and flock to the sea side to bask in the sun light as well as eat fresh fish and gelato to their hearts content! Yesterday we spent the evening at the farm house (an old villa where Gio's dad was born) celebrating Nonna Lina (Gio's paternal grandma) 93rd birthday. Really her birthday was in July, but Gio and his siblings were not around to celebrate. We hid a video camera and got her on tape talking about different memories she has from her life.... priceless! Of course no party would be complete with out gifts and a cake.... we had ordered a special "sicilian cheesecake" YUMMY! Nonna Lina was very surpsized! It was great!
As for an update on me: my belly is a growing! I dont think I have felt our little one move yet and I am really looking forward to it! It seems like last week there was not much there and now she is really starting to grow! I know you all want to see a picture, hopefully soon I can get one posted (camera issues). I feel fine, HOT and really tired at night, but other then that I am good! We hope you all are too!

still on the road (or in the air)

The space between posts seem to be getting longer... maybe once we get back to Milan I can play a little catch up and get more posted about all the things that we have done this summer! With that said let's move on to where we are now... Sicily! Giovanni and I left on separate flights last weekend from Utah (that was due to avaliablity not our choice) and returned to Italy. It was pretty bitter sweet for me! Not only is it hard for me to leave home but knowing that next time I will be back our lives will be so very different and it will be the first time I do the long haul flight with a little one in tow (that will be an experience I am sure!).

Once in Milan we did not stay long, just enough to unpack, repack and squeeze in a visit to Natalie and baby Giada (see her blog Nat and Joe) for pictures, to head south where the beaches are crowded and speedos are a PLENTY! Sicily has been really hot and from what I hear unusally humid for this time of year! I am just grateful not to be too preggy during all the sticky heat!

Gio and I headed down to the beach house to hang out with his siblings and experience some of the life by the sea side. The night of August 14th it is tradition for lots of peps to camp out on the beach... they say that the 15th is the last day of summer so in a way it is the "last celebration" before heading into a new school/ work year. Giovanni, Massimo, Amalia and I headed down to the beach to check it out and try a gelato (which I tried in a new way... instead of a cone I got my gelato inside a sweet bun, it was pretty tasty!). There is a little video I hope will post of the craziness on the beach at 11:30pm!

On the 15th there was a procession of Maria. I have spent much time in Italy and have never seen a Catholic procession... Maria is the Saint of Marina di Ragusa so what they do is take her statue and parade it around the town down to the dock where it is loaded up in a crane and put on a boat. Paraded around again by boat to another dock where they unload her with a crane and parade her through the town to the church where they might do some ceramony. We got there in time to watch them unload from the boat and parade back through the town. Hopefully you Can see it in the video, if not checkout the pix, if you notice Mary is holding an ancor that is pulling some salior out of the water. Lots of culture here!

The other pix are from a family dinner we had for Laura's birthday last night. There will be more adventures so stay tuned....

the verdict is in

I know so many of you are just anxious to know what we are having! Thanks to all of you who voted! Yesterday morning Giovanni and I went to have a gender check done and were really excited to see the little baby feet, hands, face (well profile), and as my sister in law Jennine says the privates! It took the tech a little bit of time to get our little one to cooperate... The first glimpse between the legs was with a little hand covering the identifying parts! How modest! With some nudging and pushing the hand moved and the tech pointed out the little GIRL parts! YES SHE is a GIRL!!!! We are very thrilled! I am also including a picture of myself taken Sunday! My belly is growing!