Visitors & Nursery

Brandon's sister, Rachel Murray and her family came down to visit (and to escape the Utah weather!).

Here were the highlights (some taken from the Murray's blog):

- Cousins Brynn, Mason & Rachel Faye playing together so well!! Lots of hugs were given!
- Scott & Rachel sleeping in until 9a thinking that Brynn was sleeping in, but Brandon snuck in and got her when she woke up at 7:30a and played with her all morning
- Brandon & Scott golfing at Dinosaur Monument
- Dinner at Tia Rosa's to celebrate Valentine's Day with the group
- Playing Settlers after putting the kiddos to bed
- Cousin Mason is more than obsessed with trains (age 2), so we went to the train park in Scottsdale, rode a miniature train and the carousel
- While we were babysitting, Mason was gabbering on and on about something I couldn't understand so I just agreed with him. Little did I know, I had told him we could get a new Hiro train toy the next day. I was hoping he'd forget about it. As soon as he woke up, he said, "Whitney! We go get my new Hiro of the Rails toy now?!" Oops.
- Brandon telling Mason a bedtime story about a train named Jonah that was swallowed by a whale
- Rachel Faye calling Rachel Murray "Auntie" ... here's the background story of why Rachel's named after her aunt if you're interested
- Auntie taking Rachel Faye to *nursery* and confirming to me that I didn't exaggerate at all with how WEIRD our nursery was and that she was not surprised that she was having a hard time staying in there by herself

Background on *NURSERY*: It's going better - last week she stayed for the last hour by herself. (Brandon gets all the credit here - since I go to YW, he has had to work through this with Rachel.)
I don't mean to complain about our ward nursery, but I don't want to forget how frustrating this experience has been for me. I want to be the good mommy who's child isn't too spoiled or attached and I wanted her to just run in nursery without even looking back ... BUT the schedule in our nursery is terrible. They start with puzzles - and they do them way too long - like 25 minutes. And then snack time for another 30 minutes. Toys come only the last 20 minutes or so. And I had zero contact with the leaders before Rachel turned 18 months, so they are all strangers to her (and me). And they aren't the most friendly, so I don't really blame Rachel for being nervous. And the minute any child cries, they say, "We want you to feel safe, do you want us to take you to your mommy?" Nice gesture, but when Rachel's crying, she just needs to be distracted. [Wow, good think this blog is private since I am venting here!] In all honesty, I DO appreciate their service - Brandon and I served in the nursery last summer and it wore us out - it's hard work and my hat goes off to all you nursery workers out there!! Just please, start with toys and I don't care if it's for the whole first hour. :)