the day finally came. the day we were to tour the Blue Bell Factory! the ice cream i've been eating for years and years, i would finally see its birth up close and personal.
my love affair with Blue Bell all started with the Homemade Vanilla flavor doused in Big Red, aptly named "big red and ice cream" at my mawmaw and pawpaw's house, then later in my teens i leaned more to the ever popular Cookies n'Cream. From here my preference moved to and fro, vanilla, no chocolate, no vanilla. no chocolate. really, it just depends on the time of the month...if you get my drift. needlesstosay, ice cream holds a sweet spot in my heart. and if someone is to ask you, miss stella, what your favorite food is, your answer is undoubtedly, 'ice cream.' and jane, you aren't one to say no to anything sweet. such as a baby (person) should.
so you can imagine our excitement at a day of ice cream! oh, but how boring the tour actually was. our tour guide was a crotchety old woman who had veneers and wore a cardigan draped over her shoulders. this is not what i was picturing. i wanted a jolly someone, man or woman, wearing the damn Blue Bell paper hat, and preferably soft-ish. someone you would want to hug. someone you would want to eat ice cream with. not someone who told you after the tour was over as she was serving you ice cream that she "nearly forgot about our order because she is so ready to go to lunch." oh well, the tour ended with a free HUGE scoop of the ice cream of our choice, so that was fun. stella, you opted for the "pink" strawberry ice cream and me and Jane shared the new flavor: italian cream cake (holy holy hooooolly...lawd god almiiiighty...that means it was good).
a few fun facts we learned from the tour:
1. Blue Bell Factory Tours are boring.
2. Homemade Vanilla is the number one flavor, cookies n'cream is the second. vanilla bean is nowhere on the top list, so don't even ask our tour guide (as one poor man did). she does not care nor will she think it is funny. stop interrupting her.
3. jane likes handing tour guides her sippy cup. blue bell tour guides are not amused when you distract them.
4. 52 half-gallons are produced every minute and something like 150 ice cream bars (i really wasnt paying to our tour guide at this point).
5. they disassemble and clean the ice cream making equipment every day. cleaning the equipment takes 6-7 hours. this made me really sad for whoever has that job.
6. factory workers get all the free ice cream they want (yay! sedative job and lots of calories!)
7. factory workers do not like to wave back at you while they're eating lunch.
and then later this afternoon we had a few friends over for a ladies-date. which ended up with all of you little ones in daddy-o's truck. and abby praising jesus.
my love affair with Blue Bell all started with the Homemade Vanilla flavor doused in Big Red, aptly named "big red and ice cream" at my mawmaw and pawpaw's house, then later in my teens i leaned more to the ever popular Cookies n'Cream. From here my preference moved to and fro, vanilla, no chocolate, no vanilla. no chocolate. really, it just depends on the time of the month...if you get my drift. needlesstosay, ice cream holds a sweet spot in my heart. and if someone is to ask you, miss stella, what your favorite food is, your answer is undoubtedly, 'ice cream.' and jane, you aren't one to say no to anything sweet. such as a baby (person) should.
so you can imagine our excitement at a day of ice cream! oh, but how boring the tour actually was. our tour guide was a crotchety old woman who had veneers and wore a cardigan draped over her shoulders. this is not what i was picturing. i wanted a jolly someone, man or woman, wearing the damn Blue Bell paper hat, and preferably soft-ish. someone you would want to hug. someone you would want to eat ice cream with. not someone who told you after the tour was over as she was serving you ice cream that she "nearly forgot about our order because she is so ready to go to lunch." oh well, the tour ended with a free HUGE scoop of the ice cream of our choice, so that was fun. stella, you opted for the "pink" strawberry ice cream and me and Jane shared the new flavor: italian cream cake (holy holy hooooolly...lawd god almiiiighty...that means it was good).
a few fun facts we learned from the tour:
1. Blue Bell Factory Tours are boring.
2. Homemade Vanilla is the number one flavor, cookies n'cream is the second. vanilla bean is nowhere on the top list, so don't even ask our tour guide (as one poor man did). she does not care nor will she think it is funny. stop interrupting her.
3. jane likes handing tour guides her sippy cup. blue bell tour guides are not amused when you distract them.
4. 52 half-gallons are produced every minute and something like 150 ice cream bars (i really wasnt paying to our tour guide at this point).
5. they disassemble and clean the ice cream making equipment every day. cleaning the equipment takes 6-7 hours. this made me really sad for whoever has that job.
6. factory workers get all the free ice cream they want (yay! sedative job and lots of calories!)
7. factory workers do not like to wave back at you while they're eating lunch.
 |
| just minutes before the tour began, the anticipation killing us |
 |
| double fisting |
 |
| our neighbor, Christa, joined us in our journey. nevermind the cellulite ripples on my leg. gross. |
 |
| the other thing you always do (besides de-robing all over town)...scaling statues. |
and then later this afternoon we had a few friends over for a ladies-date. which ended up with all of you little ones in daddy-o's truck. and abby praising jesus.
 |
| 'Merica |