FIELD TRIP!!!!!

Today Z, E & I went on a field trip with the Hedges' family (that is Z & E's best friends from church and their mother). We went to Theresa, Wisconsin (pronounces th-race-a, not ter-es-a). It is a family owned cheese making factory that is made the old fashioned way. Everything is made manually. We walked through several refrigerators and freezers to get to the beginning of the tour. The first 15 minutes of the tour was a video that was very informative. Then Lenny came to talk to us and answer any of our questions. He also brought us three kinds of sliced cheese and one cheese spread with crackers. He was very helpful in answering our questions.

Lenny took us through the last refrigerator that is kept at 70 degrees with 90% humidity. I walked through the door and immediately turned back around. No way was I walking through that - it felt like walking through the jungle.

The outside of the cheese factory. Each canton was shown above the door. The owner of the factory was from Bern, his father was from St. Gallen.


Getting ready for our tour in our lovely hats:

After the cheese factory, we headed over to the chocolate factory. It is owned and run by a man completely blind. It was amazing what they could make out of chocolate. There were guitars, high-heeled shoes, suckers, graduation caps, diplomas, flowers - you name it, it was there. Elyse bought a guitar for Luke (sorry, Luke, she ate it). Zachary and I shared a peanut butter cup. The chocolate was to die for, but the peanut butter wasn't as good as a Reese's cup.

The famous guitar:


Our fearless driver:


Proof that Emma was there:


Crazy Chatham with his haul from the chocolate factory:

On the way home, we stopped at Culver's for lunch. We left our bag of cheese in the car (it was fine because it was pretty cool today). The boys sat at one table, the girls at another and Pamela and I at another table. We enjoy it that way - we can talk without being interrupted.

It was an amazing break from our school routine. Everyone had a great time. The parents are extremely tired - the kids are ready for another round. We talked about hitting Jelly Belly again on the way home. Three of the kids wanted to stop, but the parents didn't. Guess who won?