how it's made...

Alex loves that show. He loves watching the manufacturing process and seeing how things are made. On the last day of our trip, he got to see how things are made up close and personal!

On Friday morning we went to Sheboygan, WI to tour the facility at VPI. My parents buy from them for their business and they offered to give us a factory tour since we were in the area. Alex was beyond excited...
Here we were watching vinyl floor tiles being made....
The whole process is fascinating! Alex loved it! We also got to see how vinyl wall base was made as well. It was a great tour. The man giving the tour gave us such detailed descriptions of the process that even Alex didn't have any questions!

After the tour we went to the conference room to meet with the president of the company and some of the other employees. They gave the kids some goodies which was totally unexpected!

On our way out, the kids posed with the sign and some of their new goodies...
The president of the company also owns a restaurant in Sheboygan, so although he wasn't able to join us, he arranged for us to have lunch there.

It was probably a good thing he didn't join us as Clara was having a pre-lunch food crisis meltdown...
The view from our table...
The Duke of Devon....
It was really good! Dad and I had sandwiches, but everyone else had the fish and chips. They said they were really good. And the weather was beautiful... such a great place to eat outside!

See... a little food and she perks right back up...
From there, it was time to say good-bye to grandpa and grandma and thank them for such a wonderful trip!

We had arranged to catch the train back to Chicago to save them the trouble of fighting their way into the city and then back out, just to drop us off. It worked wonderfully! The train ride was so quick! We were back to the city in no time!

Here are the kids hanging out, waiting for our train...

And a photo of my dad being a photo ninja...
... sneaking around taking the last few snapshots of our trip!

Thanks again mom and dad for such a wonderful trip!