Fun in the Sun

Every year by the time February rolls around, all of us in the Murray household start to feel a little gloomy and ready for winter to be over. To try and curb the seasonal depression that inevitably starts to set in, we planned a little getaway to sunny Arizona to visit our desert dwelling relatives. I was a little worried about the long drive with Brynn who still hates being in her car seat for more than 15 minutes at a time, but with some good timing and me sitting next to her singing and dancing she made it just fine. Our vacation plans pretty much consisted of Scott enjoying a round of golf with Steve and Brandon; spending time with Brandon, Whitney, Rachel Faye, and SteveJenna in their new houses; and just trying to soak up every ray of sunshine we could. We did everything we wanted and more. Since the main purpose of family vacations is to create memories, here are my favorite memories from the trip.

* Staying at Brandon and Whitney's awesome new house.

* Seeing how much Rachel Faye has grown up since Christmas. She is barely 20 months old but looks and talks like she is 2 1/2.

* Rachel calling me Auntie. (It's confusing having someone with your same name)

* Mason being so excited to play with Rachel Faye and all of her cool toys.

* Mason's favorite toy being Rachel's singing and dancing Elmo Live that I'm pretty sure he thought was real because it moved and talked on its own.

* Noticing the distinct difference between the way boys and girls play, for example, when Rachel carefully put her doll in the stroller while Mason pretended like Elmo was eating it.

* Going to the train park. Enough said.

* Watching Mason's knuckles turn white from holding on so tight on the carousal.
* Watching Rachel Faye chase birds at the park.

* Going to the park in February.

* Listening to Brynn laugh, laugh, laugh on the swings.

* Parks with SAND.

* 75 degree weather....ahhh.

* Whitney inadvertently telling Mason he could get a new Hiro (train) toy tomorrow and then thinking he would forget overnight, just to have the first words out of his mouth the next morning, "Whitney! We go get my new Hiro of the Rails toy now?!"

* Scott and I sleeping in until 9 am thinking Brynn was setting a new record for sleeping in when really Brandon had gotten up with her at 7:30 and played with her all morning.

* Steve having an awesome connection that let them golf at Dinosaur Monument for a steal!

* Steve's friend Dave having a connection and getting us into Tia Rosa's on the Saturday before Valentine's Day without having to wait a minute.

* Playing Settlers with Brandon, Whitney and SteveJenna.

* Brandon telling Mason a bedtime story about a train named Jonah that was swallowed by a whale.

* Rachel talking more and more about choo choo trains as the days passed. Sorry Whit.

* Taking Rachel and Mason to nursery at church and realizing Brandon and Whitney didn't exaggerate at all with how weird it is.

* Staying at SteveJennas beautiful new house.

* SteveJenna's backyard that is like an oasis.

* Playing on a blanket with Brynn in the shade of an orange tree.

* Mason running all around the backyard playing with Weston aka "Rusten".

* Mason saying to Weston, "Let's play hide and seek, you count to ten." * Steve helping Weston play hide and seek with Mason.
* Mason trying to get Weston to shake and sit for a treat, and when the treats were gone trying to get him to do it for a leaf. * Steve and Jenna playing trains with Mason.
* Watching the Olympics with SteveJenna.

* Brynn driving Weston crazy with all of her noises during the night.

* Mason throwing a fit because he wanted the green Dinosaur Train book when no such book exists, at least not to my knowledge.

* Mason telling me on the way home that "Rusten" misses him and is sad and needs his dog mommy to make him feel better.

Those four days were just what we needed. A huge thanks to our gracious hosts Brandon & Whitney and Steve & Jenna. We might have to make this a yearly tradition.