Utah's Amazing Home Race, Are we Crazy?

Joey and I spent Saturday morning running all over Utah county in the snow as participants in the "amazing home race". The race was a bunch of challenges to do at different home/real estate related businesses and model homes and the prize was $10,000 towards a down payment! There ended up being about 65 different teams, so the odds weren't too bad for that kind of prize. This ridiculous picture was from one of the models homes we visited where we had to take a pic with the sign and post it to facebook. Obviously, artistic effort had no place in the competition because this is one of the worst pictures of us I've ever seen!

 

This picture also happens to be from the model home challenge location we left without grabbing a token proving we had been there. We only realized it when we were in Springville (the pic was at a house in Lehi) but we were so far ahead we thought we'd try to run back up there and back to the finish. It resulted in a little crazy driving and a mad dash for the finish, even though everyone else was waiting outside to clock in at just the exact moment they could win without being disqualified for speeding, HA! So, while we were pretty close to everyone else's time, the winner and 2nd place were only thousandths of a second apart. They did have some giveaways and lots of free food and we came home with fun basket of goodies. It quite the adrenaline rush, and a fun date even if we didn't win $10,000!
 

And in case anyone is wondering,: climbing rock walls in the ice result in really sore backs, dirt ground into socks from running across a snowy parking lot shoe-less doesn't come out in the wash, and older Honda Accord clutches don't hold up so well to Nascar type driving! It's a good thing it was fun!

St. Patrick's Day Dinner and FHE

A little over a week ago, we had a fantastic family meal with my parents and siblings in Salt Lake. Last fall my parents moved to an apartment right in Downtown Salt Lake. The building includes a few community rooms that are great for family get-togethers. So they made fabulous (and nitrite-free!) Corned Beef, baked cabbage wedges, traditional  Fitzgerald green fluffy jello salad, soda bread and limeade. It brought back memories of celebrating St. Patrick's as a Fitzgerald all those years growing up. I'm glad we've kept the tradition up with my own kids and it was especially fun to celebrate all together this year.



This year St. Patrick's Day also included a fun Family Home Evening about St. Patrick and our family's Irish heritage. It turns out my 3rd Great Grandfather, also a Michael Fitzgerald like my dad, came from Ireland to Canada only in 1828. In turns of family history, it wasn't all that long ago! No wonder I've had an affinity for things Irish; two boys with Irish names!  I would love to be able to visit Ireland some day, I'm sad I never made it there during the few months I studied in London. The kids were also interested to hear about the real St. Patrick, kidnapped as a child and forced into slavery in Ireland. He left as a young adult and decided to come back to serve the people, whether he drove snakes out of Ireland is debatable.


It's great to celebrate traditions as a family, I hope my children continue to think about their Irish heritage, even though their last name isn't Fitzgerald! Erin Go Braugh!

Bracketology with a Three Year Old

Last year we started filling out brackets for March Madness, one for everyone in the family. Nolan, who was 5 last year, won outright, he did amazingly well choosing teams and the whole thing was good for a laugh and a few nights of basketball on TV.
This year we decided to do it again with the winner getting to choose dinner and the movie after it's all over. So this morning I helped Ian fill out his bracket. It went something like this

Me: Ohio State or Iona?
Ian: I-OWN-a, thas a funny word.
Me: Cinncinati or Duke?
Ian: Duke a dog!? (We dog-watched my cousin's dog, Duke recently)
Me: Minnesota or Florida?
Ian: For-ida. Are dey gunna win-d?
Me: Oklahoma or Forida GC
Ian: Why der two for-idas?
Me: Kansas or Western Kentucky?
Ian: Ken-tuffy! das a funny word
Me: Colorado or pacific?
Ian: Fa-kis-ick! das a funny word


But every time
"Duke a dog!?"
and
"Ca-siss-ick?"
"Pa-siss-ick?"

"Duke a dog?  He gunna win-d!"

Yep, looks like Ian chooses Duke!  And that's how you choose a winning team when you're three. Followed by much basketball dunking on the mini-hoop and insistence on wearing basketball pants today.

A Little Catching Up to Do

I have been out of the blogging world for too long now, it's time to get things going again. I didn't realize just how long it had been until a friend reminded me it was last July. Ouch!  So I'm going to attempt to post more often, and hopefully it will become a regular thing again. But where to start?! Oh boy, so much has changed since last July. Here's the quickest 8 month recap ever:

Joey graduated from Texas Tech
We sold our house in Lubbock

We moved to Utah
Joey started teaching, (real job after 10 years of marriage!)
We cleaned up a yucky house and sold it
We're renting an older house, but it's bigger than one we've ever lived in
Callan and Nolan go to a charter school, about 10-15 min drive away
Joey and I took a fun little trip to the Utah Shakespeare Festival to celebrate (thanks for the graduation present!) in October
We endured a long, cold winter (Probably longer and colder coming from three previous Texas winters)
We're enjoying hints of sunshine and thoughts of Spring
Joey and I just took a trip to Boston for his annual conference, SO fun!
We've been enjoying much more time with family close by, it's such a treat after years of living far away

Ok, all caught up, whew!