a hershey holiday

i'm finally ready to share my thanksgiving weekend adventures! [or should i say, prepare for picture overload. (: ] fortunately i was too busy eating on thanksgiving to take any pictures, so i only have the rest of the weekend to show you. i spent thursday with john and his family, and on friday, i drove down to new jersey to visit mine. we woke up super early on saturday and drove to hershey, pa. there were seven of us, in one van. good times, friends, good times.

the trip was special for my family because my parents used to take us to hershey on thanksgiving night when we were younger. we hadn't gone in about 10 years, so it was nostalgic to see it all again. and yes, things really do look bigger when you're younger (:

we started off at chocolate world, where we took a tour of the chocolate making process, did a little shopping, ate some lunch and went on a trolley ride. i think heather, laura and i were most excited about the trolley because it had been one of our favorite parts of the trip. each trolley has a tour guide who tells you about the history of hershey. throughout the ride, multiple stops are made as "characters" (a factory worker, milton hershey's mother...) join you to sing christmas carols. the big finale? the trolley picks up santa claus, who has a list with your name on it and gives you an early christmas present. the first time that happened to us as kids, we were so surprised that santa knew our names! we couldn't wait to see kaylee's face when it happened to her.

another thing we were pleasantly surprised to find out? all of the characters you meet on the ride are clearly played by one person. one thing we were never sure about was how they got all around town to meet up with the trolley at the right time. as luck would have it, this time around another trolley crossed the road in front of us and we were able to see. the person rides on the back of the trolley and does all of his costume changes there! kind of a crazy sight! but woot woot! we finally solved that mystery. (:

after chocolate world we went to hershey park. there were rides to be ridden and kettle corn to be eaten. we waited until it got dark and took a ride on a monorail above the park to see it all lit up with christmas lights.

after a very full day, we my dad drove us home. he's such a road warrior.

the holiday weekend flew by, but i'm so thankful i got to experience hershey with my family this year. and so was kaylee...

on sunday morning during breakfast, she turned to my dad and said, "the chocolate factory was awesome, pop pop!"

i don't think it gets better than that.