Since Sunday was our 1 year wedding anniversary Hubby sent me flowers…. flowers in the desert – who knew? They were beautiful and it was very sweet of him. I got to keep the shell as a memento.
On Monday Hubby’s Desert Dwelling Brother Steve and his wife Mini Meg took the day off from work and did some “hanging around” with us. I wanted to get a few pictures of everyone and of course Hubby and his brother did the usual goofing off while I said “say cheese” and I finally ended up with the perfect shot of them. 
The desert dwelling brother and sister in law took a couple shots before they got it right too… 3rd times the charm!
We slept in a little bit, the boys played some Magic, and then we headed out to go see the Ethel M. Chocolate factory, the “Pawn Stars” shop, have lunch and check in to our hotel.
First we stopped at the “Pawn Stars” shop (Pawn Stars is a really neat show on the History Channel that chronicles the people that come into the pawn shop with weird/old/unusual/junky items and the owners of the shop who get to meet them.) “Pawn Stars” the show is here and Pawn Stars the actual shop is here. The guys weren’t around when we stopped by BUT hundreds of tourists were – LOL!
Next up we headed to the Ethel M. chocolate factory tour (They even have a huge cactus garden and when it isn’t a bazillion degrees outside its a nice garden to walk around). I have been to the factory before (and I think everyone else has too) BUT the last time I was there they weren’t actually making any chocolate. So, this time I was determined to see those busy little bees churning out the goodies. I was all pumped up – couldn’t stop talking about the chocolate making – Mini Meg and I sat in the back seat of Desert Dwelling Steve’s super sporty red Audi and waited patiently for the factory to appear. We waited a little bit more since we did the same thing we did last time and took the wrong road – lol – and then finally there it was!!!
I rushed out of the car, took two pictures of the prickly pear cactus (Note that someone is too cool for school to point at the cactus.)
AND I rushed inside to see the bubbling, smooth, ooey gooey, dreamy creamy chocolate being swirled and smooshed and formed into the deliciousnessssssss I knew…..and horror struck!
A. The chocolate tanks in all their glory
B. “Look Hunny – no busy little bees making that sweet nectar of the gods. (sad face)”
C. Down For Maintenance
D. Mini Meg finds the silver lining – “Look -there is some chocolate. See? There was chocolate here at one point.”
Great ! (sigh) a glob of chocolate and no oompa loompa like workers….but we got a free taste of chocolate at the end of the “tour” and I got to buy the chocolate gifts I wanted to buy.
NEXT — after someone was sufficiently grumpy from not eating 😉 we stopped at a Chinese/Thai/Mongolian buffet and filled up our tanks! Then we headed to the Excalibur where Hubby and I were going to stay for the next couple of days (we had a 6am tour and we certainly weren’t going to make anyone get up that early to drop us off!) to check in. I almost died of heat stroke/exhaustion on the way to the excalibur. No pictures of that – phew!
Here is the nice big bed and the view from our room.
After checking in, switching rooms (the first room’s floor was soaking wet) and getting our bags settled, Mini Meg and I went walking around, shopping, etc and Hubby and his Desert Dwelling brother headed to the casino floor to “win big”!!!
Stay tuned for Monday night’s events, our tour of the Grand Canyon, and much more!!!