Worland!

Rich and I made another trip to Worland, WY earlier this month to do another triathlon. This one was lots of fun because it was so small... and it was in Worland, where we were able to visit Rich's aunt and uncle, Claudia and Bruce. They were so great to us. Bruce made sure to get lots of pictures, so we're grateful for that!

After all was said and done, Rich and I both got 4th in our gender groups. This was our 3rd triathlon together, and now we've swam in an ocean, lake, and swimming pool.


Rich riding past on his bike. Isn't it pretty??

And here's me on mine.


Running.


Running faster.


Claudia and Bruce let us bring Rocco, and Rocco LOVES them! He stayed in the car with Rich's aunt to watch. (Rich gave Rocco a really short haircut and was freezing for a few weeks until his hair grew back. The sweater helped him stay warm.)


His uncle, Bruce, let us shoot his guns. This was a lot of fun. I love the clouds in this picture. So pretty!Do you see that small 2 liter bottle? I was aiming for that and never hit it, but Rich got it on his first try.

We finished up the night watching a movie on Bruce and Claudia's projector under the pergola (which we hope to someday have in our backyard). It was a wonderful trip and we are so grateful for Bruce and Claudia's hospitality.

House Projects

Home sweet home. This is what it looks like now, but someday, we'll have that big tree cut down so you can see the front of the house and the bushes will be gone. Someday.


This was the day we got back from our honeymoon. We didn't have our own blankets yet (everything was still packed because the house wasn't done) or our blinds... so we tin foiled it. It got super dark in our room too... I almost miss that. :)


We ripped up the linoleum and there was all this glue on the floor that was a nightmare to get off so we could get to the original hard wood.

We had to pour hot water on towels and let it soak in order to scrape the glue off. What a relief that is over with!

Our living room already had hard wood floors, but they needed a little touch up.


Here's the kitchen floor, all the glue is up, it's sanded and ready for the stain.

We finally finished with the kitchen floor, so we could have a fridge, and a microwave, and a stove again. This is Rich, making the first meal we ate in our house. Thankfully, during this time, Rich's parents were nice enough to let us eat every meal at their house.

Our first meal at our house.

This picture is not a "house project", but it was fun. Rich grilled potatoes on the grill and made potato salad, and he grilled Salmon. It was such a nice day so, we took our table outside for a little front porch picnic.

This room creeps me out! It's in our basement and it's dark and dingy in there. When I hear news stories of Child Protection Agencies, finding out that a child was locked up by their parents for 18 years... I always imagined they were kept in rooms that looked like this. Creepy! But we use it for storage.

We also have an attic. This is Rich getting ready to investigate it. We know that there used to be Raccoons that lived up there so he is prepared to defend himself with that butcher knife.

I didn't think the house could get any creepier, but the attic is kinda scary. That wall is where the original roof used to be. You can still see the shingles on the side of the roof and the chimney. You have to climb through that hole to get the the "original" attic.

There's lots of room up there... and luckily, no raccoons. :) Maybe someday we'll do something with this space as well.

Today Rich finished our front door. It was just plain old wood so he sanded it and stained it. Now it looks great!

While Rich worked on the door, I made myself a little sewing room in the basement. I'm super excited about this. Do you see the TV? One of my favorite things is to quilt while I watch a movie or something. It kinda looks like a sweatshop, but I like it!


This is one of my quilt blocks that I've completed. It's taking forever!! But the fun thing about this quilt, is that the pattern comes from the same time period that our house was built. Twinners!


And here's our living room as it looks today...

And the other side of our living room.


And here's our kitchen with a different table.

And the rest of our kitchen.

There's still a lot of work that we need to do, but I'm really happy with how it's looking so far. It feels like home now. I'm so grateful for all the hard work Rich put into it to make if feel homey. I'm also really glad it doesn't always smell like polyurethane. That stuff REEKS!

Honeymoon

Rich and I went to Kauai, HI for our honeymoon. It was paradise!! When we got to Hawaii we rented a car. See, here we are in our rental car.

Then we went to spouting horn. The water enters through caves and shoots out a hole on the surface. It was super pretty!

Then we went to a restaurant that had the best food we'd eaten that whole trip.... Just looking at this makes me hungry again! Mouth watering!


Here we are outside that restaurant. You can't see the ocean very well, but it's out there.

We brought our own cereal and ate breakfast on our balcony in the mornings. You can kinda see the ocean behind Rich.
We did a little snorkeling...
This is the grand canyon of Kauai. Beautiful!!


We read about a really great hike up to a waterfall in this grand canyon so we decided to check it out. We saw some really great views there! AMAZING!




I didn't post any pictures of the waterfall because it was pretty pathetic. But the hike was great and we were still super happy we went.

The rest of the trip, we checked out a lot of beaches. Oh, I miss it there!


There are so many chickens and roosters on this island. There was actually a chicken IN the garbage can the rooster is standing on. It was fun to see all the little chickies running around too.

We had the BEST shaved ice there! Seriously. And I know my shaved ice! MMMMM! Tiger's Blood!


We went on another hike that was a little more sketchy. Our guide book said that lots of locals do this hike but that it's "technically" off limits. But we took our chances. This is us at the top of the falls looking down from the road.

The hike took us down to the very bottom. It was pretty thick forest down there and some difficult spots. There were ropes tied to the trees that we had to hold on to so we didn't fall off the narrow and slippery rocks. It was a good time!


We finally made it down. It was super pretty down there and definitely worth the hike!
Rich had the great idea to have s'mores and hot dogs on the beach outside our hotel. So we bought some charcoal and Rich made us a fire. But that night we only made s'mores. We were too full already.


They sure tasted good!!

One of my favorite things was drinking coconut milk from a fresh coconut. They just drill a hole and stick a straw in it. MMMM!

Rich then cracked the coconut open (WITH HIS BARE HANDS!) and I got to eat the coconut meat. There are so many reasons to LOVE Hawaii!

We ate at a pretty good BBQ place. It was fun to eat at places with a nice view of the ocean. That never got old.

We were able to go to a luau. It was some of the best food I ate there. That place put Las Vegas buffets to shame!

We decided that because we still had hot dogs and charcoal, we'd wake up early the next morning and watch the sunrise while we roasted the hot dogs. When we woke up at 4:45am, it sounded so disgusting, but by the time they were cooked, they tasted just as good as ever!

And we got to see a really pretty sunrise. (It was a little cloudy though...)



That same day, we went on a boat tour of the Na'Pali coast. This coast is used for a lot of movie scenes, but the only one I can remember is the new King Kong (which is a HORRIBLE movie, by the way).

This boat tour was really fun. We got to go snorkeling and saw some really beautiful sights. On our way back to the beach, we passed a kayaker who had tipped over. When our captain asked if he was ok, he asked for a ride back to the coast. He said that had flipped over 12 times and was getting really fatigued. He was really scared and I felt so bad for the guy. He was pretty happy to have his feet on solid ground again.


After the boat tour, we went to "secret beach". This was by far, my favorite beach! It's not so secret though because we ran into a few people carrying the same guide book we had. It was so pretty though. This is my "happy place". If I ever have a bad day, I'm going to close my eyes and pretend I'm here again. It was WONDERFUL!!

We walked along the beach and watched the sunset that night. It was fun to watch the sunrise and sunset in the same day!

We checked out one last place before we boarded the plane. It was pretty here because you could see the lighthouse in the background and watching the waves crash on the rocks was cool.

Now we're back in SLC and so far I love it here. We've been working on our house and it's made some really great progress! Sometimes I really miss Hawaii though!!!