Life as a Yowler

We wanted to do one more fun thing with the kids before we started the long drive home. We heard there was The Jelly Belly Factory, halfway between San Francisco and Sacramento. It offered free factory tours and free samples of jelly beans.

One of the nice things about traveling, is that I get a break from cooking. These kids of mine can eat. We’ve stayed at three different Hampton Inns by Hilton. Each one, we were that dreaded costumer that loaded up on breakfast foods before we left for the day. The one hotel, Brandon tried to cancel because our plans changed. They wouldn’t let us. Brandon called the company and talked to managers, but they wouldn’t budge. In brandon’s 10 years of traveling, that had never happened as long as you gave a 24 hour notice. Well, I can’t lie and say we didn’t try to make up for it by taking extra food and snacks. Because we definitely did. We ate full breakfasts, let me tell you.

The Jelly Belly Factory had lots of Christmas decorations set up outside when we walked up.

Inside the Jelly bean store.We went on a self guided tour with lots of movies to watch and windows to look down at the employees working.

It was a huge manufacturing plant.

The kids really enjoyed seeing how the jelly beans were made and packaged.

There was a lot of jelly bean art to look at.

There were some really cool machines to watch as they loaded and unloaded the jelly beans. The boys, especially, were amazed.

This was Joah’s favorite piece of jelly bean art. By the way I can’t type out “jelly bean art” without laughing.

It was a really fun and unique place to tour. It got the kids out and moving and helped burn some energy. Brandon has three store trainings to do today as we make our way home.

The drive home has been beautiful. Here is the scenery through Lake Tahoe. I will really miss seeing the mountains and the huge trees. This trip has been very good. It broke up the Michigan Winter(even though it’s just begun). It’s always good to get away and see new things. We feel refreshed, experience wise that is. Sleep wise…that’s a totally different story. We miss our beds! We also miss our kids bedrooms. Lord, thank you for kids’s Bedrooms. It really is a much more restful way to sleep for everyone. Everyone being in the same room together has been  extremely tough. Like I said, we miss our beds and look forward to getting home!