Houston just finished a 6 week Hazmat program with many of his fellow firefighters. It consisted of sitting in class for 40 hours a week learning lots of chemistry and much more. His favorite part though was when they got to dress up in their Hazmat gear and blow things up. Why is that not a surprise? It was really nice to have him home every night, that was the longest time that we have spent every night together. It was awesome! I am so proud of him and It was a huge accomplishment. He put in a lot of hard work for it not only in the classroom but writing grants and going to meetings to get the funding for this program for their department. It's amazing how smart he is, he's one of those who will hear something once and will never forget it. I wish I was like that, I always had to cram before a test to remember the information. I hope our kids get that from him :) Not only is he incredibly smart but he is so humble and I love that about him. If he reads this he will probably be mad that I wrote all of that about him but it's true! Here are a few pictures from the graduation, he looks pretty cute in that uniform!
Dinner with my best buds from high school!
Spring training games and day drinking with friends
St. Patty's Day celebration at Padres
More spring training game fun with friends...
The infamous 
Last weekend, Houston and his fellow firefighters competed in a competition called The Fit to Fight Firefighter Relay which was held in the Anthem Community Park. The event is a challenge, testing the strength and stamina of fire departments from around the state. It is also an opportunity for fire personnel to promote cardiovascular health, the leading cause of death among firefighters. It was so nice to see all of the families with their adorable kids from our department and get a chance to cheer on our guys! All of the fire fighters participated in a 70-mile relay run, which I was a little worried about Houston doing it after his knee surgery a few months ago but he did great. 
The Daisy Mountain Fire Department donated all proceeds from the event to We Care in Anthem, a non-profit charitable organization dedicated to helping seriously ill children and their families. The day of the event started early for the guys, Houston was there at 4am, as the teams of 12 from the departments rotated teams of two running throughout the 70 mile relay in full gear, with one member of the team carrying the American flag. 
After completing the run the teams took a brief break before gearing up for the combat challenge. Last year Daisy Mountain won the event defeating Goodyear and Sun City West in the contest. This year the contest grew as Goodyear, Surprise and a team from Georgia participated. The combat challenge requires four people from each department to make their way through an obstacle course. Each participant had to get fully dressed into their fire gear while being timed, carry weights approximately 40-50 yards, flip a tractor tire down a field before finishing by dragging a 170 pound dummy 40-50 yards before the second person from their department starts. They were so exhausted after this event! I felt so bad for all of them but they all did a fabulous job. Daisy Mountain did not take first place but they all worked extremely hard and raised a lot of money for their charity. During the relay every guy involved ran somewhere between 10 and 15 miles. I was so proud of Houston and his buddies!! 
