Rib Shack 7

Yep, we decided to get into the rib business!!! To be honest, I am not sure how much we are going to do this (insert: hard work, long hours, hot!hot!hot!) but, we thought we would give something a try that we have tossed around for awhile.... The company is called Rib Shack 7 and we were food vendors this past weekend at Silverdale's Whaling Days.

How did this come about? My dad is actually a supplier for Hickory House Ribs , which is based in Colorado and they have the most amazing ribs and jalapeno cheddar sausages! We (read Daron and my dad) thought we could start a small side business that the kids can be a part of as they get older and they can learn how to run a business. In theory, it is great, in reality, it will take a lot of time that we aren't sure we have...we'll see. On the upside, we did have a lot of fun as we got started. It was neat to people watch and see the camaraderie amongst the vendors (ie: free funnel cakes, chicken skewers, cotton candy, etc....). We did have to slow down on the bartering though as ribs for cotton candy started to lose some of the appeal (and money!). On Saturday, it took a lot longer to set up in the morning than we figured and we didn't get started until around noon. Thankfully, people had already smelled the ribs and a few came back right as we opened that were waiting.

This is a picture of our first customer at the Rib Shack! She didn't get ribs, she bought lemonade, which was definitely the biggest seller of the day as it was SO hot and sunny outside! I think we sold 5-6 coolers of Lemonade on Sat. Those of us working probably drank one whole one though, so I should account for that!
Friends from church stopped by and they were our first ribs customers! (not technically, but I didn't get a picture of the first one-oops! I snooze, they lose!) Scott and Annie said they LOVED them and we were happy to appease. I should mention that earlier in the day we had two family friends stop by (thanks Walls and Cullens) to support us, but we didn't have our act together yet. We also got to see Greta's teacher from last year and a few others-that part was really fun. Most were surprised to see us behind the booth, so that was fun!
On Saturday, Justus, my dad, Daron and I worked at the booth until 10:30PM! It was crazy! I think I mentioned we were hot, right? ;) Anyway, for Sunday, Greta came to work and we begged some friends to come and help so that my dad didn't need to work and so that Justus & I could take off some time too. It meant a lot that we had such great friends to come and help share the load with us-thank you Darrence, Fran, Rich and Josh! We really couldn't have done it without you. Special thanks to Darrence's niece and nephew who came to support us and play with Justus and Greta during a break-thanks!!

All in all, it was a fun time with family and friends and after a few days we will probably forget how hard it was and just remember the good times-much like labor, right???!! ;) We were also able to learn alot the first time around and we are hopeful that the next time we will do it all that much better. Lastly, (sorry if this is starting to feel like an acceptance speech) thanks to our friend Thys for all his hard work on our logo design. Pretty cool sign, huh? I like our shirts too! Thanks also to Matt and Michelle (my poor cousins who were lucky enough to stay with us Friday night-the eve of our first gig-ha!) for all the prep you helped us with for Sat.-hoped the mojitos helped! And I saved the best thank you for last, thank you to my mom, Brad, and Ingrid for watching the younger three kids so that we could make this happen-you guys ROCK!!

So...if anyone would like to try out our fixins', the Rib Shack will be serving up ribs and sausages at Kingston's music in the park this Sat. night.