The Miskin Family

Since I was part of the YW’s program for or church (I was just released and given a new calling last week) I was able to go to girls camp this year! Our stake is doing it a little different, where every other year the ward plans their own girls camp. We joked about going to a hotel, or a resort somewhere, but we ended up at the Timpanogas Camp ground by Sundance. We planned to be there Thurs, Fri and Sat.

The first day, we drove up after lunch, pitched our tents, did some crafts, complained about how cold it was, and played some games. One game in particular was “chubby bunny”. We had to see who could stuff the most marshmallows in their mouth. Since I do not like “raw marshmallows” I wasn’t going to play. But then my competitive spirit came out and I joined in! I ended up in second with 6 marshmallows to Katie’s 7!

We also had to do certification, and teach the girls how to light their own fire! That night we ate tin foil dinners and dutch oven peach cobbler made by our resident chef, Kai.

In only rained off and on that day, nothing too major. however, that night it got cold! Some of is stayed warm. Others didn’t.

In the morning we woke up to eggs, bacon and potatoes, again all cooked by Kai. We then packed lunches and headed out on a hike to Stewart Falls. The Hike took us about an hour in and an hour out. The weather was prefect. not too cold, not hot, and no rain. We were able to catch some animals sightings, and the falls were beautiful!

When we came back, the rain started. We went between huddling under the awnings and huddling next to the fire. At about 4pm we were starting to think we may need to leave early. This was just about confirmed when the girls tent started leaking! We decided to leave after the Bishopric came and we had dinner! It was a little bit of a bummer to leave early, but we would have been miserable if we would have stayed! It was a great little trip though, and we all had so much fun! Even if it took 5 showers to get the campfire smoke completely out of my hair.

A big thanks to Sandii, Katie, and Arianne for putting it all together. And of course to Kai for making all of our food and keeping us warm and safe. Lastly a super huge thanks to my sister in Law Kristana and my mother in law for helping with the kids while I was gone!

While we were on our trip, Nadia turned 18 months!

Stats:

Height: 31.75 inch 55th percentile

Weight: 23 lbs 30th percentile

Head: 18.5 cm 64th percentile

The good news. She did not scream this time when she was weighed, and only  gave the pediatrician a few dirty looks. She is healthy and happy!

When we came home from our trip, Nadia started nursery! She did not want me to leave, but once I did she was fine (other then the nursery workers told me, “she needs a nap”). So far she does better every week!

Nadia’s favorites: She loves electronics and cell phones. No cell phone is safe when she is around, and do not even think about using the computer (especially my netbook) when she is awake. Her new favorite thing is to play in the van. She loves pushing all the buttons and turning on the hazard lights. As far as toys go, she loves anything the other two kids are playing with, babies and strollers, and crayons, markers or pens. She loves books. She will sit in your lap for hours, handing you books over and over again. Her favorite books are anything with animals or babies, ABC books, or books with flaps. Nadia also loves to sing. She likes songs with hand motions like wheels on the bus, popcorn popping, and itsy bitsy spider.

Nadia also loves being outside. If the door opens, she is out in a flash. Her favorite things to do outside are: drive on her car, attempt to ride the kids bikes, play in water, go on slides, dig in the dirt, push the stroller around and run into to street. She also likes to “go,go” as she says. She is always up for an outing, and is pretty well behaved wherever we go. She likes to be in her stroller which is a big help!

Nadia isn’t as picky as she used to be! She now will eat pretty much anything we give her. Her new thing is to have cereal in a b owl with milk. She feels grown up when she does. She loves anything with peanut butter, all fruits, most veggies, breads, mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, soups, chips, cheese, graham crackers, fishy crackers, eggs and her all time favorite: fruit snacks. Nadia has a little dance she does when she is about to get a fruit snack or a treat. As far as treats go, Nadia has a sweet tooth just like Natalya. She loves dum dums! She likes to climb on whatever she can in order to snack a treat. Nadia is also our messiest eater. She always gets something on her clothes, no matter what precautions we take.

Nadia is the earliest talker out of the three. We are amazed by the things she says. She copies a lot, so we will say something like: “Time to go!” and she will say it back! These are the words and phrases she uses most often: Momma, Daddy, all done, treat, fishy, doggy, ducky, kitty, book, look, hot, byebye, yucky, wha wha (which is water, and she says it for anything liquid so anything from milk, to the water in the swimming pool. She also says “treat water” which is chocolate milk or soda), daddy go to work, go, tickle tickle, computer, no, stop, owie, fruit snack, cracker, food, princess, baby,shoes, socks, blankie, night night, banana, apple and her new one, Tanner!

Nadia has a love for animals. She gets so excited and squeals when she sees dogs, cats, or horses. She rode the horses at thanksgiving point a few weeks ago, and was so excited about it. She loves to pet dogs and cats (if they let her). She also loves fish! We will let her watch fish videos on you tube sometimes. She is not a tv watcher, it does not hold her interest. This is unless there is some kind of animal in it.

Nadia also loves music and dancing. Her moves aren’t real great, but she is cute doing it! She loved watching Natalya at her ballet practices.

Nadia is definitely a third child. She loves attention from mom and dad, and if the kids aren’t around us, she will take advantage of it! She also gets very upset if she is left out of something. She knows when the kids get a treat that she doesn’t, or if they get to do something she doesn’t get to. Overall she loves playing with Tanner and Natalya, but she is sure to scream if they do something she doesn’t like. Nadia is very independent, which should  be fun when we start potty training. Her personality is a lot like Tanner, she is very adventurous and will climb onto anything, or crawl into anything. This has caused a lot of bumps and bruises for her! She is only weary of people (or people dressed up in costumes). She likes most women, but prefers only dad and grandpas as far as men go. Her sleeping is a lot like Natalya though. She goes to bed well, sleeps about 13 hours at night, and takes a two hour nap everyday! Is Nadia as girly as Natalya? No, but she does loves shoes and dressing up. She will usually dress up in whatever she find lying around too. Oh, and she is a lot taller then Natalya too. At 18months, she  is taller then Natalya was at 2! She loves people to laugh at her, if she falls down, the best thing to do is laugh, and she will laugh too!

We love our baby girl, and her personality! She is lots of fun to have around. I guess we will keep her.

After three days of non-stop Disney fun, we decided to hit the beach again! We went back to the same beach we went on Monday, and it was empty. We had the whole beach to ourselves! It stayed overcast all day, and the waves were angry! The kids had fun running away from the waves, digging in the sand, and eating a picnic lunch (which included lots of sand for Nadia).

Right as we were leaving, Tanner was pulled under by a wave, but Trent grabbed him pretty quickly. However, if you talk to Tanner about it, he will tell you, “I almost DIED! I was under the water for HOURS!” After the beach we cleaned up and the adults (minus grandpa who stayed back with the kids) met up with Derrick, Ashley and Drew at Fashion Island. It was the biggest outdoor mall ever, I loved it! After shopping we all met up again for sushi. This is when we had to say goodbye to Derrick, Ashley and Drew again! Hopefully we will see them soon!

On Saturday we finally were able to go to Ruby’s Diner for breakfast. It was awesome, but I think I consumed 2000 calories. And then we shopped some more at South Coast Plaza (biggest indoor mall ever). After shopping we had to say good bye to grandma and grandpa. It was sad to say goodbye, and to realize our trip was coming to an end! We spent the rest of the day swimming, and ended the day with Jack in the Box and a movie.

On Sunday morning we packed up, checked out, and headed out for our ten hour journey home. At one point we had to stop for a bathroom break in Baker, Ca. It was 114 degrees. We almost died, it was suffocating! We also stopped in St. George for a picnic dinner. As we were driving into Utah County, we caught the most amazing thunderstorm. There were cool cloud formations, hail, and lightening striking all over the valley. It was a sight to see, and a great welcome home!

By this point we were exhausted. But, we still had one day left on our hopper passes, so we packed up the kids, and grandma and grandpa again and headed to the happiest place on earth!

We decided to hit California Adventure one more time and catch some of the rides we missed. We also met up with my brother Derrick, his wife Ashley, and their son Drew! The kids were so excited. We decided to catch the Playhouse Disney show first. This was the first thing that Nadia loved. Excuse the video, it is a little dark.

After the show, Drew wasn’t feeling well and ended up losing his breakfast all over himself and his mom! So, while everyone else was dealing with that, Trent and Tanner took off to catch a few rides, and Natalya and I went on the Monsters Inc. ride.  Later on Trent and took off by ourselves and rode one the the best roller coasters, California Screamin’! The kids were pretty toasted at this point, and we even had to give Tanner a coke to perk him up (he did not want to be there! Imagine that!). We got some lunch, then I took the girls to the Bugs Life Water feature. Nadia and Natalya loved it, but did not love it when we headed back to Disneyland with them soaking wet!

At Disneyland, Trent and Grandpa took off with the kids, while my Mom and I did what we do best: Shop! I am very impressed with the prices on a lot of the toys and things, so we loaded up and spoiled the kids rotten. I really enjoyed just walking in and out of the shops on Main Street. I plan to move there someday, whether they let me or not!  There is just something magical about it, like you have step into another, more simpler time (with expensive food and lots of souvenirs!).

Around dinner time, we decided we all had enough, and we said goodbye to Disneyland for now. But, to not miss out on the full experience, we spent a few hours in Downtown Disney. We ate at a cafe for dinner and then hit Haagan Daz on our way out!

What a wonderful time we had! It was sad to leave, but I think the kids needed a break. Only two more days left of our trip, and tomorrow, we hit the beach again!

This day we planned to spend out entire day at Disneyland! We arrived at the park a little later, so we missed one our two rides on our ridemax itinerary, but that was okay because to me they were the “lame rides”. In the morning we were able to do a few of the Fantasyland rides that we had missed, Trent and Tanner went on Splash Mountain again, and Trent Tanner and I went on Space Mountain! This was the longest line we had to wait in the whole trip, 40 min. To occupy Tanner, grandma bought him a sucker.

While we were on Space Mountain, my Mom took Natalya to the Princess Fantasy Faire, in hopes they they would be able to catch one of the Princesses we missed at the dinner. Natalya was so excited that she was able to meet Snow White, Jasmin, and Sleeping Beauty again! We were lucky that Snow White was there! My mom was not impressed that they had to wait in line for an hour, and only met 3 princesses.

After riding several more rides, we stopped for lunch. During our Disneyland trips, our favorite place just to hang out was New Orleans Square. The restaurants there were the best, there atmosphere was fun, it was cool and shady, and they had the Pirate Band.

During the day we were also able to meet a few more characters. If we saw a character, but the line was too long I made Tanner stand in view of the character while I took his picture.

In the afternoon, we hit Tom Sawyers island (a favorite of mine growing up), and also the Jedi Training Show. It was an awesome show, but Tanner did not get picked. My guess is the kids who meekly sit and raise their hands are not the ones that get picked and that is exactly what Tanner did. However, the show itself was really fun to watch.

After about 5pm, my parents decided to sit back and save our front row seats for Fantasmic (and they waited for 4 hours, the show started at 9pm). I think we had tired them out though, they seemed to like hanging out and sitting for a while. During this time we hit a few more rides like The Matterhorn, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, the Tea Cups, and the Carousel. We did not think Natalya was tall enough to ride the Matterhorn. As we were walking away, she was so sad. “How come I can’t go on any of the fun rides!”/ As we were walking away, I noticed the height “stick” seemed a little short. So I ran her over to measure her. Sure enough, she was tall enough! She was so excited! She did not even care that the ride was scary! She just couldn’t get over the excitement of being able to go on a “scary ride”.

As it was getting dark, we headed back over to the Rivers of America and watch Fantasmic. It is such a good show, one not to miss. It would have been better if Tanner and Natalya didn’t have bathroom emergencies right in the middle! One funny thing about the show. The Rivers of America had several little duck families hanging out in it. I assumed when the show started, all the little ducklings would go hide. Nope! They were all still floating around while things were spraying and boats going through. At one point part of the lake catches fire… and so did one of the little ducklings! His little tail was on fire! I am assuming it was okay…well at least I hoped it was! After Fantasmic we stayed and watched the fireworks. Before we headed home, Trent and Tanner hit Splash Mountain one more time (it was Tanner’s favorite). It was a long fun day! At this point, I think two days is more then enough for Disneyland, however, we were headed back in the morning for one more day!

“Disneyland is like Alice stepping through the Looking Glass; to step through the portals of Disneyland will be like entering another world.” Walt Disney

We did early entry, so we left the condo at 6:30am. However it was well worth it! We were able to get on the Finding Nemo Submarine before the line got ridiculously long. We also used a RideMax itinerary (if you want to know about it ask me, it is the BEST way to do Disneyland), so we had our whole day planned out, and hardly had to wait in any lines!I do have to say, there is something so magical about walking into the park, under the quote: “Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy.”

The girls Minnie Mouse clips and Natalya’s Mini mouse shirt (thanks Mauri!) were a hit with everyone.

In the first few hours we were able to ride Haunted Mansion, Star Tours, meet Tinkerbell, visit Toon Town and ride the Gadget Go Coaster plus visit the characters houses, and ride it’s a small world. Around 10:30 we were able to meet up with grandma and grandpa who had a late start because of the late night Dodger game.

A little about meeting Tinkerbell. Natalya was not in a good mood. She said she was excited, but did no act it. In fact, she acted a little like Tinkerbell. She wanted to have nothing to do with Terrance, so they had to send him away! Even more than Natalya, Nadia wanted to have nothing to do with them. If Tinkerbell or the other fairy came hear her, she would run away! She was more interested in eating her cereal I guess! I also decided that if I ever worked at Disneyland, I would be Tinkerbell.

After we met up with grandma and grandpa, grandma took the kids to get their face painted! We were also able to hit a few more rides including Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain and a bunch of the Fantasyland rides. I was also able to get my traditional Mint Julep, and eat some delicious corn dogs for lunch.

After lunch we headed to California Adventure to spend the rest of our day! We were able to go on most of the popular rides there, including my new favorite: Soarin Over California. Another one we loved was the Tower of Terror. Trent and Tanner went first, and then my mom and I went. I forgot how scary it is! Tanner was pretty terrified by it, and then became obsessed with it. He asked us a million questions about it, like how lightening can strike an elevator, and if it was a real hotel. Anyway, we were also able to meet Mickey Mouse and Pluto. This affirmed our suspicion that Nadia HATED the characters. She pretty much hated a lot of things. The only ride she did not cry on was It’s a Small World. She screamed on Snow White, Mr. Toads Wild Ride, Pirates of the Caribbean, Alice and Wonderland and also through the Bugs Life 3D show. She had more fun just pushing the stroller around the park and constantly eating snacks.

The highlight of the day was the Princess Dinner at Ariel’s Grotto in California Adventure. We were able to deck out Natalya with an authentic Cinderella dress, Cinderella “glass slippers”, and a crown to match. She first met Ariel as she was walking in. Then we were taken to our table. For the rest of the dinner, each princess would be announced, then would go from table to table meeting each little girl, signing autographs and taking pictures! Natalya would not even eat! She just watched the princesses go around the room, until they came to her.  However, when it was time to go, she was mad. She would not leave. She said we had to wait for Snow White and Princess Tiana. One of the wonderful workers came over and explained that not all the princess could be there because some of them had to go to the ball! Natalya ate up that story and was happy to leave. On our way out we saw a cute little 10 year old girl dressed up like Princess Tiana. We told Natalya it was Princess Tiana, and she was so excited. The little girl totally played it up too, thinking it was cool that someone thought she was a really princess!

My favorite part is this video of Nadia and Princess Minnie. It perfectly shows how Nadia felt about all the Characters.

Over all we had a blast at the dinner, but we were so tired and ready to go home, just so we could wake up and come back tomorrow!

Trent promised the kids he would take them swimming first thing in the morning. I am glad I didn’t make that promise because Tanner woke up at 7:30am. Trent was good on his promise though, and took Tanner out as soon as they were ready.  However, I did join them around 8:30 with Natalya and spent about an hour swimming! It was a little cooler then I would have liked, but the pool was heated and as long as I kept moving I felt okay. It did not seem to bother the kids one bit!

After our morning swim, we ate some breakfast and then headed to Laguna Beach. Trent heard about Victoria Beach from a few people, so we decided to go there. It is supposed to be less busy then most beaches, which was a good thing since it was Memorial Day.Although it was a little hard to get to (as it was surrounded by cute little beach houses), it was well worth it. For a while we had the beach to ourselves, but as the morning went on, it got a little busy, but not overly so.

My kids are beach kids. Every time we have gone to the beach, the kids completely lose themselves in it. Tanner spends most of his time in the water, Natalya loves to just sit and watch the waves cover her feet, and Nadia loved to play in the sand (and eat it too). I truly believe my kids were born to live on the beach… maybe someday right?

I mentioned Nadia loved to eat the sand. If she was eating food, she would dip it in the sand before she put it in her mouth. If she was drinking a drink, she would add in a handful of sand  before she took a swig. Other times she would just face plant into the sand with her tongue sticking out, and then lick her lips when she sat up. It was so gross, but there was no stopping her. Oh, and her diapers were pretty awesome the next day.

This beach had some fun tide pools to explore. We found some shells and Tanner even found a dinosaur foot print.  There was also a cool lighthouse that someone had built to hide the stairs they use to reach the beach. Unfortunately, while Tanner, Trent and I were gone exploring, there was a sea lion release on the beach! My mom, dad, Nadia and Natalya were able to see it (and get pictures too I think). I was pretty sad I missed it,  but I felt better after my mom reenacted it for me.

After a few hours, we dragged the kids away and hit up a really good pizza place called New York’s Upper Crust Pizza (I am still dreaming about it). After that we headed back to the condo so my parents could get ready to go to the Dodger game. Since we weren’t going to the game, we decided to hit the pool again. This time Nadia was able to go, and we realized once again that she is a water  baby. She kept trying to get out of her floaty and try to swim by herself.

After a dinner of sandwiches, we went out to explore the Condo property. We found a cute little store and bought some candy, and then also found the arcade! The kids had fun messing around on all the games, and I think Trent had a lot of fun too! Before it go too late we headed back for bed, we wanted the kids to get a good nights sleep before our big day at Disneyland!

Oh, and the Dodgers one that night. That is one of the best birthday presents my dad received!

After church on Sunday, we packed back into the van and headed to out Condo in Newport Beach, Ca.

The kids were very tired after their night of no sleep. This was the nice part of our four hour drive.The un-nice part was when we ended up on a toll road with no cash.

We arrived at our condo, and were very excited to find it had an ocean view! It was a very nice place, and we plan on staying their every time we visit Southern California from now on.

After my parents arrived and we all settled in, we celebrated a birthday! My Dad turned 61 on memorial day, but we decided to celebrate it Sunday night. We had a dinner of salmon and then enjoyed my favorite Costco cake and opened presents!

The kids begged and begged all evening to go swimming, but luckily it wasn’t very warm that night, so we were able to convince them otherwise. Day 3, beach day..more to come!

The day after Tanner finished school we packed up the van and headed out for a week long vacation! Our first stop was in Vegas to spend the night at my brothers house.

We arrived at 5:30pm to a delicious dinner made by my sister-in-law Ashley. They kids were more interested in playing and hanging out with cousin Drew then eating.

After dinner we headed to play at the park.

It was the perfect tempature, and it was a really fun park.

This park was extra cool because it had a big water feature for kids to play in. You push a magic button and the water would come on for about 10 minutes. Although the kids were not in their swimming suits, they had a blast getting wet!

That night was the worst sleep ever. Luckily it was also the worst night sleep of our trip! Nadia woke up at 5am, and the other two kids woke up at 5:30am. Let’s just say we had a lot of time to get ready for 9am church! We are so grateful for Derrick and Ashley letting us crash at their house and for feeding us!

The last Friday in May, Tanner had his last day of school! It was kind of a weird schedule, so I ended up taking him to school and was able to get a picture of him with his teacher, Mrs. Harding! We were so lucky to have her as Tanner’s teacher this year. She was a perfect fit for his personality, and I felt like he learned and excelled because of that.

It seems so surreal that Tanner is already done with his first year of school!It seems like we were just here

And now we are here!

His last week of school was full of fun things: a career dress up day, where Tanner dressed as a doctor, only because he couldn’t think of anything else. He informed me that he doesn’t actually want to be a doctor because he doesn’t want to have to do surgery. Then there was cowboy day, which Tanner was decked out. Circus day, he came home with his face painted like this:

Nadia thought it was so funny, she just followed him around the house laughing until he washed it off. Then there was beach day, and he was able to wear his bathing suit to school!

Anyway, when Tanner came home from school on the last day he was so sad. He is really sentimental and is sad to leave kindergarten. I think he is the only kid that is NOT excited about summer vacation.

Oh, and cookies to anyone who can tell me what song the post heading is from…