Ice Cream Tradition

Isla girl has joined Grandpa's ice cream club. It'll be months before we see my father-in-law again and I wanted to carry on this tradition without having to wait until spring. Nothing beats having your first cone with the ice cream King himself. Isla's first flavor was sea salt & caramel ribbons at our favorite, Salt & Straw. She couldn't believe it when we put that cone in her hand and didn't immediately take it away. She wore the same dress as her sisters and got it messier than both of them combined. I've never seen her so happy and free, except for maybe when we go on one-on-one dates to Target. She loves when I say "boo boo boo boo boo" to her really fast, laughing like I've just told her the funniest joke. 

For the rest of the day she bounced her feet wherever we went. She does it when she is really happy or excited, both emotions I'm sure she felt that day. I can't blame her as she had a second ice cream treat at Sophia's birthday later that night and somehow still managed to go to bed easily. Isla, you are surely a third child and my sweet baby. I never would have let the older girls have this much sugar but that smile and those dreamy eyes get me every time. Welcome to the ice cream loving club!

Ice Cream Crawl

If there's one thing I recommend doing this summer, an ice cream crawl is that thing. I saw this idea on instagram sometime last year and I waited until back in February to bring the idea to life when we gifted "tickets" for it to our ice cream loving Grandpa for his birthday. How does it work? Simply pick out as many ice cream stores as you want to try, go to each shop and buy one ice cream between all of you. Share, enjoy and then head to the next shop. It is equally as delicious as it is fun. 

For our ice cream crawl we visited four shops in Portland. Our first stop was at Fifty Licks where we tried the blood orange creamsicle and the blackberry bomb. A little piece of advice, most shops will let you try samples of as many flavors as you want so take advantage of that. We really liked this spot as it had a variety of cool flavors, a bright airy aesthetic and it wasn't very busy when we got there. We practically had the place to ourselves! We will definitely go back again based on our first impression.

From there we headed across the street to Cheese & Crack. I was pleasantly surprised when we parked seeing that they were so close to each other, having no idea before we got there. What drew me in about this location was how pretty their dusted soft serve looks in pictures. We got one big beet dusted soft serve and it was a beauty. You mostly taste the sweetness of the soft serve with a subtle taste of beet. I can't say I'd go running back for more but I wouldn't mind trying more flavors if we were ever near by again. Highlight of this location was definitely Lucy licking her lips after every messy bite.

Our third stop was at What's the Scoop and it falls under the category of "three strikes, you're out." We tried the cherry smoke topped with toasted marshmallow and it did not hit the spot at all. Maybe I should have taken my own advice to do more samples but we were trying to be time sensitive because of afternoon traffic and decided to pick what sounded cool. None of us were really a fan, the gal working wasn't nearly as friendly as some of the other shops that day and it felt a little dark inside despite the windows. It just wasn't doing it for me. Next..

We saved the best for last, our personal favorite Salt & Straw. We decided since we are very familiar with their flavors we would each get our own scoop to finish off the day. I had leoman-lime slime which was vanilla ice cream with lemon and lime curd in it. I love the zing of a good lemon flavor. The girls stuck with the roasted strawberry coconut and could barely finish it. It almost had me wishing we had went there first. 

Overall the ice cream crawl was a huge success. The girls had fun, we all tasted something we enjoyed and it was nice to try different spots in Portland. We can now confirm Salt & Straw is the best based on taste and experience. I can also confirm your kids will still nap even on an ice cream sugar high because these girls didn't stand a chance on our drive home. Now to finish up the picture book we made for Grandpa of all our ice cream dates and add in the souvenirs (stickers, pins & polaroids) we gathered on our crawl. I think he's going to love it! Let us know if you decide to try an ice cream crawl wherever you are.

A Snowy Ice Cream Date

The winters here are usually pretty mild. You don't often see much snow and by February you can usually get away with wearing a light jacket. At least that's what I was thinking when my Mom flew here with the girls and I last month. Mentally, I was ready to go for walks in the park, explore some local sites and most importantly take my Mom to our favorite ice cream place. I had a fun little list growing in my mind. What I wasn't expecting was the amount of sick days my kids would have when we got home and the huge snow storm making the roads a nightmare to drive on. It felt like waiting for Antarctica to thaw as we waited for the roads to be good enough to go out on. It wasn't until Mom's last day here that we got the go-ahead for clear freeways and we loaded up the car for an adventure. 

Well let me tell you, Salt & Straw on a snowy morning is the best time to go. We practically had the place to ourselves and got parking right beside the shop. They let my Mom sample every flavor on the board and she even bought a t-shirt to remember the experience. It was an ice cream feast made all the sweeter with happy girls and a sleeping babe. It doesn't get any better than that. My flavor choice this month was "Alma's Rose Petals & Chocolate Mole Fudge" on top of "Cocanu's Baked Milk & Bee Pollen." The split scoop is the way to go.