Can you tell the kids were excited to be there??! ;-)
This is what they saw when they walked in. They just stood there, looking at everything with big smiles on their faces.
We signed up for the Chocolate Tasting Tour that was coming up right then and the 3-D show for right after lunch. For signing up, the kids all got big Hershey kisses. Started their morning off just right.
We all sat down for the tour and were given a bag of 5 different kinds of chocolate as well as a cup of chocolate milk that had cinnamon and something else that completely has slipped my mind at the moment. Pete just gave us all his chocolate. :-)
The "lab technician" then took us through the history of chocolate and showed us how each chocolate piece had a different flavor.
Here's Micah and Cara, by Mason, enjoying their chocolate.
And, Madie and I were enjoying ours too. We don't look anything alike, do we? ;-) We took all the leftover chocolate and headed out to see what other fun stuff awaited.
Of course, had to take a picture of the kids by the Reeces Pieces wall, since that's one of their favs!
And, we couldn't forget to get a picture of Caleb and Mason too. Not sure where Isaiah was at that moment. Probably off looking for more chocolate.
Next we went to Kisses Factoryworks. The kids all got hats and were about to work the assembly line at the Kisses Factory. It wasn't very big, but it was free, so that's all we cared about!
The kids all lined up at their shoots and got their "gears" ready to fill with Hershey kisses.
Isaiah was filling his up here. Livie loved watching!
They all filled up their gears, then sent them through the packaging part. We opted not to buy the gears full of kisses, because we knew we'd be getting a lot more chocolate for free, so why buy it, right?
We had to check out one of the gift shops next to the Kisses Factory and Madie found the biggest chocolate bar in the world!! It was $40 for this puppy!!
They had this bakery that had the most delicious looking cupcakes and cookies, all topped with candy bars! Looked SOOOO good!
Micah and Mason found their favorite spot! All you could ever want in Reeces was right there. This was the bigger gift shop, which was basically one half of this building. Anything you could ever want that was made by Hershey's Chocolate was here. Did I mention how good it smelled here too? YUM!
They have another free thing in this place and that was the Chocolate Ride. You got to ride in these cars and they take you through this winding track that tells you all about how chocolate is made. The kids LOVED this!! Probably our favorite thing, with the exception of the 3-D show, which was fantastic!!
It had these singing cows all throughout the ride that the kids thought were so funny!
Micah and his whole family, plus Jeff, rode right in front of us. Em, Keni, Pete, and the rest of us rode in the one behind them. It was so fun!
When we got out, we were upstairs and were given Hershey bars. The guy gave us a lot! I took a picture looking down on part of the gift shop. The kids all went here at the end and got some t-shirts and stuffed animals. Well, Noah got a Hershey's car, but the girls got stuffed animals. Pete even got himself a hat. :-)
It was time for lunch, so we went one of the many cafes inside. Because it was a Tuesday, it really wasn't that busy. Kind of nice to have so much room in there.
Then it was time for the 3-D show. We were allowed to take pictures before we went inside. Once we got inside though, we had to put the cameras away. It was so cool though! It was an actual theater, but not only was it 3-D, but they had bubbles that came down and water droplets and wind blowing and all this stuff happening that went with the movie. I think hands down this was their favorite thing of the day!
We went on the Chocolate Ride one more time before calling it a day. Micah and Cara had to get on the road, so we all took our pictures outside the building. Here we are again. :-)
Em, Jeff, and Kendalyn. Not sure why I didn't get a picture of Micah and Cara. But...
We DID get a group shot! Sans Cara, because she took the picture. We had a fabulous time! Wish we could've spent another day there. We said our goodbyes, then Em and Jeff joined us as we spent the rest of the afternoon shopping. We hit the GIANT Bass Pro Shop by our hotel, which the kids LOVED. We found a fabulous pontoon boat for us if we ever win the lottery! ;-) Then Pete and Jeff went to Best Buy, so Pete could buy a GPS. After seeing Micah's Garmin, Pete had to have one, so they shopped for that while Em and I took the kids to Target. We had dinner together and headed back to our hotels to get packed and ready for our early morning wake-up call. We headed out on Thursday morning bright and early and got home around 8pm that night. With the exception of an early morning puking session by Livie who got motion sickness, it was pretty uneventful trip, thank goodness. God provided for us in both health and safety the entire trip and we were so thankful! Pete is now in China and we're just relaxing here on our summer break. So, that concludes our adventurous, fun-filled vacation! It was an amazing time! Can't wait to do it again. :-)
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