Ethel M Chocolate Factory and Botanical Cactus garden

Ethel M. Chocolate Factory is a self-touring facility in Vegas where you can see how chocolate candies are made. This factory has a series of pipes, conveyer belts and tanks that hold 20,000 and 35,000 gallons of chocolate. It's completely free and fun! I have to say that I have never tasted a hot chocolate as good as I did tonight! It was AMAZING.

After exiting the factory, you can get free samples in the chocolate lounge. And you don’t have to feel guilty about eating all those little chocolate bites – you can walk off the calories at the Botanical Cactus Garden. The cactus garden boasts three acres of more than 300 different kinds of plants, including Teddy Bear Cholla, Texas Prickly Pear, Spotted Aloe and other cacti that most people never knew existed.

The whole reason we went is because my little sister from Big Brother's Big Sisters was with us and wanted to see the Cactus Garden. They put lights on all of the cacti. There is one photo that I was complaining about because my double-chin was showing. In the next photo you'll see that Marvin is trying to hide it for me! HAHAA

You'll also see my little sister doing cheerleader moves. She taking after me. AWWW. lol. Oh, to be 15 again.






















This one cracks me up because she leaned up against a cacti and was asking Marvin to remove her thorns!













And then I got hungry. Believe it or not, people out here eat cactus. Just for your information, it's slimy and disgusting. Even more slimy than okra.



This is a "had to be there moment", but I laughed so hard. There was this rent-a-cop that was hired to ensure that no hoodlums got off the concrete path. Iwas going to take a picture of the two of them by a tree, but the rent-a-cop lady yelled at us. Let me first say that we didn't see ANY signage about staying on the path. Anyways, it was hilarious because everytime the guard turned her back on us, Marvin would stick his foot in the dirt, off the path. HAHAAAA










Above is the BEFORE photo. Below is the photo after he said for us to smile and say "PROVOLONE". Where does he come up with this crap?




This one is my boyfriend trying to pick up the Ms. Green M&M. His pick up line? "Wow, I see that you're wearing green too. Maybe we should hang out sometime."
I guess if he likes chocolate, then he's in the wrong relationship! I'm the most vanilla person ever, with my skin that won't tan!

Our first Thanksgiving

We were really excited to be celebrating our first Thanksgiving together. I had to work, but we were able to cook at home in the early hours of the morning when I finally got off work. That way, he was able to eat with me and then get up later that day and go and eat with his family. I love to cook so I was especially happy about that. One great thing about Vegas is that you get to do anything you want at ANY hour of the day - and I'm a NIGHT person. I am blessed to have a great boyfriend. I am so thankful that I have the life that I have. I have a great family, job, friends, and doggy. I am able to enjoy my life, even with the daily struggles, knowing that everything will be ok because God is on my side.

He wanted to take pics of the food because he loves to eat. I'm just glad he loved my Southern cooking!

Election Party 2008

I voted for McCain and obviously lost. I'm not a sore loser, though. I believe that it will be interesting to see what happens. My gay boyfriend, Columbus, invited us over for a party. He cooked and had lots of live-feed for us to watch. It was funny because Columbus and I are the only ones that voted for McCain/Palin in the whole house. As soon as Obama Bin Laden won, Columbus fell asleep.

Halloween Haunted House

These pics are a little old because I found an old memory card. They are just randoms. We went to a house called Hotel Fear. Enjoy.

My First NFL game!

I don't watch football. I only care about Alabama because I miss it so much and because they are GREAT this year. My boyfriend, however, is a huge Colts fan. His sister got us tickets to the game for his Christmas and my birthday gift.

We headed to San Diego to watch the Colts vs. Chargers game. We won in the LAST two seconds and I got a lot of pics of Peyton Manning. It was hilarious because we rode with friends to the game and they drive a lime green CHARGER, which is who we were playing. We couldn't help, but be noticed. It was hilarious because people kept yelling at us and saying that we should be driving a challenger instead. :)




















After the game, we headed down to La Jolla Cove, California and did some relaxing and shopping. We had a BLAST. I love little beach towns. The weather was sort of rainy, but we saw cool stuff. Below you'll see walruses, pelicans, anenome, my friends, Inga and Robert, and a rock shaped like a fried egg.