In 2012 Riley began his zookeeping career as a reptile keeper at the Santa Barbara Zoo, where Rachel would join the zookeeping team for African mammals shortly after in 2014.

While Riley began to grow his snake collection, and Rachel was getting settled into a new job and city, the two began to chat about their bay area roots and bonded over their love of the SF Giants. In October 2014 Riley invited Rachel over to watch the World Series at his house, and just kept hanging out after the Giants were crowned world champions that year. After Rachel bought Riley his favorite shoes in (fake) snake print for Christmas that year, Riley was certain Rachel was the one.

Fast forward through wildfires, mudslides, a plague, and moving nearly 400 miles, guinea pigs, cats, and snakes on snakes on snakes, Riley and Rachel continued to do their thing in Sacramento.

After about 7 years, they finally decided that being married seemed like a good idea, and on Rachel's 31's birthday, Riley proposed at the Giants game during the 8th inning on a game they would later go on to win dramatically in 11 innings. Spoiler alert, she said yes.