Birmingham Road Trip, Part 1 of 3

On Friday we drove out to Birmingham so that Anton could run in a race there on Saturday. And since I am a bit of a picture-taking fanactic, I have far too many pictures to include in one post. So I have divided them up into 3 sections. I will be posting all 3 sections one after the other, rather than waiting a day in between, because my sister is coming tonight and I will have even more pictures to post after that. So here goes.

The first stop on our whirlwind road trip was at a particular ice cream factory. Now this isn't just any factory. This happens to be a factory that makes some of the best ice cream in the world. You know you are obsessed when you go out of your way driving just to see the factory. And to relieve your suspense as to what brand of ice cream can be causing such a sensation, I will now show you the sacred spot:

Ah, Blue Bell ice cream. I do so love you.

I resisted the Blue Bell trend for some time due to the cost. But one day it was on sale, and the rest is history.

You'd be amazed how easy it is to keep your kids behaving on a long drive by promising them ice cream at the end. My kids love ice cream as much as I do, though I don't think they are quite as much the connoisseur as me. They'll eat anything labeled ice cream that you might slap in front of them.

Now, you can actually take tours of the Blue Bell factory, but when I called to reserve a spot they were already full. I was super sad, but decided we'd stop by anyway. I was glad we did. You could see part of the factory floor from the gift shop area.

The kids were entranced. We had to drag Alex away from there. They would have stood there and watched the ice cream packaging process all day.

Look at all those pipes and vats full of ice creamy goodness. Yum.

That is where the ice cream is actually going into the buckets and getting their lids put on. I wonder if freshly packaged ice cream is any good? I bet it's a bit mushy.

They had a little cafe-like area where you could get little cups of Blue Bell for $.50 apiece. I chose the Triple Caramel.

There it is in all its fabulous glory. Mmmm.

Ella enjoyed eating and wearing her Triple Chocolate.

Alex enjoyed sampling both Daddy's Triple Caramel and his own Banana Pudding. Anton enjoyed both his and Alex's ice cream.

And the best part of all this, it has been over 90 degrees outside. How much more perfect can a cup of perfectly delectable ice cream get?

Up next, cave crawling and water play. Stay tuned!!