Day 1 - a day of reunion and Frozen Fun

The night was a wonky one. I remember sleeping pretty fine, but somewhere in the middle of the night, I felt my sleeping partner (K) fussing about and tossing in bed. It was probably about 2-3am (USA time) and this little one must be adjusting her body clock. 

The boy team had worse suffering sleep and by 6am, both had gone for a supermarket run. A more productive way to spend time, I guess. We had nuts, chips, bottled water and some fruits. 

I remember feeling very cold, and was all huddled up through the night - I needed to wear 2 tees to sleep. 

By the time the whole room was awakened, it felt slightly disorientating and while the sun was shining down brightly, it was just about 7am. I was excited because this was the day that I will be meeting one of my oldest friends since primary school. We'd been separated for years and this was the first time we'll be meeting in more than 10 years, and what a bonus - we get to meet each other's child(ren) too. It was terribly exciting. 

That motivation was enough to get me up and wash up so I don't scare the beegeezus out of her with my unpainted face, and I started prepping the kids that we'd be meeting new friends soon. While receiving live updates from her ("I've touched down!" she texted) we got ready. 

It felt super surreal meeting this girl (who was a girl, definitely a woman now). Let's just say that Wai and I have a pretty special something going on and it's not every day that you get to befriend and stay friends with such a special gem. And to lay my eyes on her, along with her precious girl, it was a very special moment. 

The girls clicked instantly

And everything was in a mess, them exchanging/opening gifts

A boy happy with his toy trucks & cars

New friends

Look at them. Conspiracy sisters, already in moments!

And... us. What an amazing feeling to be reunited!

With the husband jetlagged and tired, we devised a brilliant plan of letting him sleep while we mommies brought the kids to start the day. So off we went! I was actually feeling really cold being in the room, but once the sun touched my skin, it was pretty warm. 

Strolling to Disneyland (J in pram that I was pushing)

We stood at the gates for a few minutes, discussing which part we should go to. Disneyland, or Disney California Adventure Park? Since we knew that Frozen was one of the key highlights, we decided upon Frozen Fun. Upon entry, we headed straight for it.

Happy family at Frozen Fun (spot the bunch of Olafs!)

Jake and Princess Sophia

In the queue for a ride at Monster's University

And then, the magical moment. We queued up to meet Elsa and Anna - the set-up was not as magical as I expected, but I guess it was enough for the girls. We were brought to the castle, and brought to a room. Inside, there was nothing but the sisters.

Mersmerised and mildy stunned, seeing Elsa and Anna in front of their eyes

Meet-and-greet - Frozen is alive!

A mix of stunned and happiness

Happiness

Cheeky Olaf and spunky Anna

We had a few minutes, where the girls had the chance to interact with Elsa and Anna. They asked questions, received autographs and our very own Olaf was stumbling about like a clumsy snowman while repeating silly questions, that warranted Anna to exclaim "oh my, you ARE Olaf!" - too cute!

We then proceeded to catch the sing-along play, a mix of live characters with prime shots from the Frozen movie, with singalong lyrics like a giant nightmare karaoke session in a big hall.

Princes Elsa, Christof and Anna make special appearances!

Frozen Sing-along Segment

We managed to score the meet-and-greet tickets, which explains the special moments the girls had with the princesses. There are limited tickets so for the general public who did not score them, this show was their only chance to meet with Elsa and Anna - so we were pretty fortunate!

We proceeded to the "real" Frozen city, where a centrepiece of snow awaited the children. 

In the "city centre" - spot the frozen waterfall centrepiece in the back

The children got to play with snow/ice

We queued up and got to slide down the "ice slide" - pretty fun

The next highlight - meeting Olaf! Check out the delighted faces and hug

Two Mommies, two Princesses, two Olafs

More Olaf shenanigans - carrot-nose fun

Just because he's so adorable, here's a full outfit of J our very own Olaf

By this time, we'd been in Frozen Fun for 5 hours and we took a break to meet the husband who'd just awakened. After meeting him, we made our way to other parts of California Adventure Park - beyond Frozen Fun.

Riding a tractor in Car-land

Sitting in a sea-shell, swishing about to meet Ariel

The girls get Goofy

We then settled down to catch the Parade. 

I love parades!

The little green soldiers were very life-like. Probably my favourite.

Though it was dark, it was only about 6pm - so we continued with rides.

We rode in a caterpillar ride

Kiddy bumper cars

A ladybird

A spinning spaceship (& the jellyfish - no pics for that)

All-time favourite carousel

We finished off the night at the theme park with Daddy going off on an adult-roller coaster ride, and the rest of us taking the ferris wheel (see the lit-up Mickey behind us? That's that).

To elaborate a little about the ferris wheel, we did not take the traditional (boring) option. There were two lines, one for the regular, one for swinging. Everyone gamely opted for the swinging ferris wheel - this meant that the carriages pretty much swung from side to side pretty vigorously and it nearly felt as if we were on a roller coaster! I remember K was feeling pretty tired by then, and her face was ashen - from fright? fatigue? - during the ride.

Everyone was pretty spent after the ride and the kids had some hot chocolate while we went to look for food - at 9pm. There as a row of restaurants outside the park and we settled on Denny's. Not a great choice as it served blah, oily food. The winds were strong and after dinner, we all made our way back with three kids properly tired-out. I remember hugging J in the carrier as we walked back and enjoying the body warmth.

Little BFFS

A sweet treat to end off the night

I had memories of the cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory being awesome, but because we were so jet lagged the night before, we couldn't manage cheesecake. Tonight, I wanted to sate that craving so we went to tapau the cakes. Look at the size of the cakes! It was a good hit on the spot that I had. Yum.

With the kids knocked out, the adults tried to sleep but we ended up chit-chatting and trying to plan for the next day. It was such a long day - one that is so, very blissful and fulfilling. What a beautiful start to the holiday.