Well that was new...

So for as long as I can remember, I've never had trick or treaters. This year was the first time I've been able to experience the "other" side of the door. (Back in Moab, we rarely had trick or treaters - mom usually just left a bowl of candy on the front porch while they drove us all around town).



I've always lived in apartment or condo complexes ever since going to college and then into the "real" world. Kids don't visit condo complexes. They just don't. Everyone stays pretty much to themselves in these complexes. Now that we moved into a real neighborhood with a real house... I finally get to experience this and experience I did!



I bought about 3 bags of candy and plopped myself down on the couch to watch a movie. Shane was gone doing shows in northern Utah so I wouldn't see him till later that night. And the movie began. And for quite awhile nothing happened. I had my light out outside but I wasn't sure if anyone would even stop by cause we are still so new in the area that I thought maybe they wouldn't cause of "stranger danger"... but I was wrong. Around 7:30pm they slowly started to trickle in... It had been 45mins - hour when one little tricker treater girl looked up at me and said " you don't have very much candy!" Wow... bold these youngins are today. So shortly after here I got worried that I wouldn't be "cool" in the neighborhood if I didn't have any candy so I shut off my lights, hopped into my truck and slowly manuvered my way out of the neighborhood and ran over to Albertsons.

Something to note... candy is much much cheaper when you buy it after the "trick or treating" event has actually begun. Prices slashed! Must go! So I got a LOT more for a really cheap price. (Yup still reaping the benefits of that mistake - I'm sure there will be plently left over for thanksgiving...)

I got back to the house, flipped back on my light and plopped back down in front of the tube. And then no one showed up..... well at least for the next 20 mins or so.. and then the flood happened again. At this point I as like "take as much as you like!" and the kids were so polite... I think all the parents train them to take only one... cause it was like pulling teeth to get them to take more than two a piece.

Everything started to wind down aroun 9:30pm or so and my neighbors then invited me to come over and have smores and hot chocolate out in their driveway. That is what they had done instead of passing out candy. They had a nice little fire pit on their driveway and it was good company and nice weather. I came back smelling like a campfire but it was well worth it.

Happy Halloween!!

It's getting colder

We have done so much in the past few months. We finally got everything moved out of the condo last week. The majority of the move happened months ago but we finally got the last tooth and nail out of that condo last week. I had the rooms painted white (it's easier to sell white walls rather than green ones) Our new paint got stolen though right out of the condo before our painter was able to use it. Weird.. who steals paint?? So round two got it on the walls. I had the carpets cleaned and the whole house professionally cleaned to spick and span appearance. I just hope we can sell it now. It's such a burdon on our bank account. Grr... anyone want to buy a condo in SLC?? Great price!

We took a trip to Idaho a month a go to "CITY OF ROCKS". It is a fantastic state park with amazing climbing. The drive to "City" is boring and flat, and you have to take weird almost unlabled dirt roads to get there, but once there... the rocks just pop up out of no where! We stayed there for about 6 days and had a great time. We had 11 people total in our group who came to camp and climb and about 9 dogs. It was a barking frenzie half the time but I was happy to say it usually wasn't our dogs. Shane was able to send a climb he had done several years ago (on the first try) when he was still in the prime of his climbing career. It made his whole week.

We had our second meeting with the DNR board (Division of Natural Resources) at the beginning of October in regards to our getting an alligator permit. The first board gave us good recommendations to this second board. The second board passed us with flying colors! Everyone had kept telling us how hard it would be to get this permit. And for us... it was uneventful. Just took a long time because of the process. Whahoo!! Our first alligator should be here tomorrow! We have permits for 2 but are going to start with just one for now. We are the only ones in Utah that can legally have an alligator. Pretty cool huh!

We did the Utah reptile expo two weekends ago and have already gotten some bookings off of it so that is good. We only needed one or two in order to recoup the cost of being there so we're happy with it.

The business was a bit slow for September, but finally picked back up again for October. This past year has been busier than ever. We are starting the process of getting a loan to upgrade our business into a facility where people can come to us. It's a long road ahead though so hopefully we succeed.

It's getting colder outside which means that ski season is just around the corner now. I'm hoping to only work 1-2 days a week. I really only want to work AYC and a few private lessons here and there. But I'm sure I'll do what ever I have to do. With two mortgages... we need the extra income.

We are slowly getting our house put together... Still have a some boxes to get though... it's a time issue more than anything.. I just need more of it!

New House

So I figured it was time for an update. We've been in our new house for just over a month now. Wow has it really been just a month?? We've done tons of repairs and fixer-ups and lots of moving. You don't realize how much stuff you have till you have to move it all. Here are a few of the modifications we've done and how it looks now.

The Dining Room:

The Kitchen

The Living Room:



The Bedroom:



Notice the matching "round" dog beds...

Rindy's Office/Shoe Room:

New Fence to keep the doggers in... Awe.. they wanted to say hi for visiting our blog! Roof!

Where did the Summer go???

Shane and I have had quite the summer already. We've got married, honeymooned in Thailand, Sold one of our condo's, purchased a house, went sky diving twice, been camping and climbing several times, went to a family reunion (and Shane learned how to make rope), bought a new motorcycle, worked like crazy on the reptile business so it's booming and are now about to move into our new home. (So hopefully we can sell the other condo). The painters have been in, the floor is being replaced in the kitchen and dining room and bathroom. The concrete outside is being redone and we're having a fence added so we can give the dogs a REAL backyard. And the move begins this Saturday... the big move, I guess I should say... we've been taking small loads over every day but hopefully this one will be the majority of the stuff. Here are a few pics to commemorate the summer...

Family Reunion
Rock climbing in Moab

Richins Family Picture

Camping in the Uintas
Shane getting suited up for sky diving in MoabRindy getting ready to Sky Dive in Moab
Sky diving in TooeleOpen house in Moab
Condo we are currently living
New Bike.. Suzuki GSX 600CC
New House.. movin' in this weekend!!

Our Sky Diving Adventure!

Shane & I have been talking about going sky diving for months now. So we finally just bit the bullet and signed up. We got there at 9am and the first thing they did was have us go in a little room at watch a video about all the dangers, safety procautions, and guidelines.

We learned to:

*BELLY BUTTON

*BREATH

*BANANA

Then we went out and signed our lives away with all the typical waivers. Then we got told to just chill for awhile. Maybe 10 minutes went by and then things finally got going. There were about 10 other people going for thier first time. We were all assigned a Tandem Partner/Instructor. Mine was named Brian. Shane had also bought me the video/picture package so I could record my journey. The film guy's name was Tom. Brian got me all suited up and gave me some instructions (pretty much the same thing as in the video). Then after a few more minutes we climbed on a plane and up up and a way we went!

Climbing into the plane.
Brian (my tandem instructor) and me

Getting ready to exit the plane. Toes go OVER the edge.

Head back, grab your harness... ready, set, ARCH!!!!

And away we went...

We did a full flip after exiting the plane.

Still flipping.

Brian pulled a mini parachute to stabalize us so we were right side up.

Free Falling!!!

Checking out the view.

Pulling the parachute.

We went up while the film guy went down.....

He got down and over just in time to catch us landing. "Incredible" were the first words out of my mouth I remember. I would do it again in a heartbeat! Shane's experience was a bit muddled by motion sickness. If we do it again we've got to remember the Dramamean. Over all, I never felt really scared. It was amazing!!

4th of July Weekend

July 4, 2009
Happy Birthday Shane!!!
We spent Shane's birthday at the Freedom Festival in Provo, UT doing shows all day long. This is the 5th year we've been doing this. Afterwards, a group of friends and us got together to celebrate Shane's birthday by watching the fireworks then we drove to the hot pots (natural hot springs) down near Spanish Fork in Diamond Fork Canyon.


Sunday night we decided to go camping up in the Uinta's. We found a camp area near the entrance of the Uinta's and set up camp. It was nearly deserted, probably because everyone had just left to go home from the holiday weekend.
We played fetch with the pups the next morning through the marsh next to our campsite.
Then we drove up to the area around Scout Lake. We took the wrong path to get up to the area we wanted to climb in and ended up hiking across several peaks just to back to where we started from. The view from the top was gorgeous though.

Shane climbing, and trying out some of the new Triad gear I got him for his birthday.


Our friend Shaun came along to camp and climb as well.
Me climbing. I believe this one was called Novacain.
Shane getting ready for the big 5.12a roof climb.
He sent it on his first try!!

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On Wednesady I got an unexpected half day off when my Chiro Doc's flight got cancelled. Spent the morning calling patients to reschedule then Shane and I and our friends, Kate and Aaron went for a motorcycle ride up to Shane's old hometown of Wallsburg. This old church house (that Shane used to go to church in) was used in the filming of "The RM".
Kate and Aaron.

We went to the graveyard and visited Shane's dad's grave.


This plaque explained how Wallsburg got it's name.
Shane used to fish in this little stream and swing on a rope swing (which is gone now).

This is where Shane lived.
Shane's dad built this house but died before it could be finished. Shane and his mom and siblings had it finished and moved in shortly after.

Shane and I, a bit wind blown, on our ride. Our route consisted of a quick zip down to Provo, up Provo Canyon to Sundance for lunch at the Foundry Grill (kind of expensive but worth it!). Next up to Wallsburg. Toured around the town and then down through Heber, Park City, Parley's Canyon and back to SLC.

The only mishap on the trip was that the baffeling in my pipe decided to come out. Shane told me that it looked like someone had stuck something up my pipe.
Turned out my "big single" engine had rattled my baffling loose in my pipe and it had decided to show it's dirty self. The boys tried to pull it out and then push it back in but neither worked so now I have a large metal poop coming out of my bike pipe. Lovely.

Other than the pipe issue, we had a beautiful ride up to see Shane's stomping grounds. It is a cute little hicktown and Shane hopes that we can one day repurchase the home that his dad built one day.

Saying Goodbye to 278 E New Century Lane #B

Last week I said goodbye to my first home. (The first home I, myself, purchased anyways.) Shane and I had put both of our condos up for sell and figured we would just see what sold first. It seemed like they were on the market forever and then my condo finally got a bite. A low one... I counter offered at a bit higher price..closer to my asking price and we finally settled at $137,000. (It is a horrible sellers market right now, btw) A month flew by and all of a sudden I only had two weekends left to pack and move my stuff. My friend Crystal came over the weekend before and helped me pack everything thing into boxes.

Yup, I had my condo for almost 4 years. So many memories... I remember having family Christmas in my condo one year. Shane and I had our first real date at my condo (he brought over Rumbi Grill!) I remember buying my first set of couches and having to have Steve help me move them in cause I didn't have any help. I remember flying through the roommates.... Kate (married after 3 months), Ashley (engaged after 1 week, married in 2 months), Jenn (engaged in 2 months married in 4 months), Tiffany (longest roommate... 1 whole year! and then a few months), Jen (stayed till I got married, moved out two weeks prior to wedding, moved back in day after my wedding - her mom and niece "came to stay" for a few days... which turned into two months... dang squatters.. and then finally moved out the day before the condo was sold). I remember throughing a suprise birthday party there for my friend Leslea. I remember making some scrumptous meals in my little kitchen. I remember fighting with the upstairs neighbor about loud music that wasn't loud. I remember getting in trouble for parking my motorcycle underneath the staircase by my door :-). I remember just being really really comfortable in my home.

Then two weekends ago I had a couple of my guy friends come over and help me pack all of my stuff out and store it in a storage unit. Actually it ended up being two storage units because it didn't all fit into one. Then the rain hit just as we were hauling the tv's over (I have two oversided tvs) and the rain didn't just hit.. it hurricane hit...and the roads flooded and everything got drenched... oh the rain of June 2009. The next day Shane & Jerson came over and grabbed the last few bigs things... I went over on Monday and saw Jen and her squatter family off and did the last over look of my home. Then shut the door and walked away.

Tuesday I went into the title office and signed it away. By Wednesday I was a bit richer and I no longer had my condo any more. Bitter sweet... bitter sweet.