Cousins Cheer for Chocolate

Aunt Terri with the kiddos at Hershey's Chocolate Factory

Today was "field trip" day with the Fisher/Garcia cousins! We traveled to Hershey, Pennsylvania which is a short drive from my sister Terri's house. There we enjoyed a free ride through "Chocolate World" and learned all about Milton Hershey's technique of chocolate making. At the end of the ride, each of us received a little bag of chocolate-covered almonds. Yummy!

visitors at the chocolate store

"sweet" deals around every corner

In the gift shop, we were wowed by chocolates galore and more free samples! We browsed the "sweet" deals and scored a 40-ounce bag of miniature Reese's cups for only $6.95 (making a mental note to return for a visit before our year of furlough ministry ends so we can take some back to Chile with us!)

Isabel enjoying her free sample of a "Bliss" candy

Needless to say, with a small tribe of eight children we didn't linger too long amidst the delicious temptations. Our next stop was to the Hershey's Kisses area, where each child received a free hat and the opportunity to package a heart filled with chocolate kisses.

Eva, Nathaniel and Isabel strike a pose

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, cousins Nathaniel and Alec have a unique relationship and the red scratch mark over Nathaniel's eye in the picture below bears evidence to that fact! No sooner had I posted about their occasional "tiffs" than a disagreement over a yard lantern resulted in screams and scratches. Fortunately, today all seems to be forgiven and they were actually quite loving with one another while at the chocolate factory:

cousins and bff's (for now!)

It was a wonderful morning of fun and smiles. We are thankful for this special opportunity to make new memories and for the stateside cousins to get to know one another better. Anticipation is already building for the great family vacation in September where ALL of the fourteen cousins should be together! :)

wearing their factory hats: Owen, Benjamin and Isabel

We exited the factory and took the obligatory group photo by the sign which thanked us for visiting Hershey's Chocolate World. The kids were much too distracted to actually look at the camera but I think the smiles and goofiness say it all. Thanks, Aunt Terri, for coordinating such a special day for all of us!

final group photo with a bunch of happy and chocolate-y kiddos