It’s amazing how much better our mornings are when the kids are asleep by 9:30. I realize that’s a Captain Obvious moment, but with this kind of a schedule, that hasn’t happened a whole lot. Woke up today, ate cold cereal, and packed up again. It wasn’t hard to motivate the kids this morning at all; even Levi remembered where we were planning to be today. As soon as he woke up, I said, “Hey Levi, jellybeans!” He popped up out of his sleeping bag and yelled “Jelly Belly factowy!” We wanted to be at the factory by 11am, and we made it to Fairfield by 10:30. Hurrah!
Nik and RJ met us there, and they, along with Jeff, Andrew, Aspen, Levi, and Lily, went on the free tour. Kendra, Jaden, and I all went on a private on-the-floor tour that was pretty dang cool. We left the building and went to the employee entrance. Once inside, we had to put on hairnets, long white pants, lab coats, shoe covers, and gloves. Jaden wasn't impressed with the hairnet; he thought it was much too hot and itchy! Ruby, our tour guide, took the three of us through the factory where we could get up close to all of the equipment. We got to taste jellybeans at every stage of production, see and smell flavors that aren’t yet being sold, take a look at colors that are still being worked on. Did you know, for example, that the candymakers experiment with color until the colors are just right, and then decide what the flavor will be? The batches of colored beans (unflavored) that didn’t work out just right, along with all of the candy swept from the floor, are sold to local farmers as pig feed. We spent about 90 minutes in the factory, and it went by fast.
We met up with the rest of the group in the café, where we ate jellybean-shaped pizza. Jeff bought two cases of Sport Beans, Drew & Jeff both bought Jelly Belly shirts, all of the kids picked out some bulk jellybeans, and Levi & Aspen picked out cute hats. Levi’s has a beanie propeller on top that spins when he runs, and he’s pretty happy with it. It seems to fit his personality, and it makes me laugh to see him running around in it.
Eating lunch and souvenir-shopping took a total of about two hours, and I don’t know who was more worn-out by the end—the kids, or Nik, RJ, Jeff, and I. I’m sad that we only got two days with them, although the kids were active enough that Nik & RJ may have gotten their fill in two days! The older boys really enjoyed wrestling and playing with RJ, Kendra and Aspen think that Nik is the coolest ever, and Levi would be happy to adopt Nik as his second mom. After we loaded up in the car and had said our goodbyes, Levi jumped out and (with me following) ran across the parking lot to give both Nik and RJ one more hug and kiss.
Whew. Busy morning! We are headed straight to Monterey now. I’m hoping we’ll get there by dinner.
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