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. 

22 January, we set off

The day started early. Our alarms rang before 6am, and the husband and I creaked about in the bed we just laid in no more than 3 hours ago. Our adventure was about to begin, so up we got to start it!

Luggage, big, small and still unfinished

My father kindly offered to send us, which was such a relief. The kids were happy to see him and were in high spirits all the way to the airport. It was a cacophony of 爷爷this and that, highly adorable - and noisy. It was a tad bit much for 630am but hey - better happy cries than weepy wails. We bade farewell to Dad happily and proceeded to check in.

Riding on the trolleys - always a highlight for the children

While standing in line to check-in, the skies started to brighten and I could also feel the excitement start building up. Surely, it's really happening! Being new Amex card-members, we utilised our vouchers to utilise the Lounge.

Getting comfy, this little Missy

Loud and noisy, this little boy

And then, of course it was all too good to be smooth. 

Soiled bottoms of his - a pee gone awry

Spilt coffee - what a mess (at least no more clothes were soiled, I guess)

And all this, not even an hour into our time at the airport. Groans.

But hey. No point crying over spilt coffee or pee on pants, so off we went to catch our plane.

Putting on our best smiles

We made calls to bid farewell to the Grandmothers...

And off we go!

My children speak loudly. And it's extra-megaloud when we're in confined spaces, such as an aircraft. Everyone, and I mean everyone, can hear their requests.

"Mommy, why got no sound?"

WHY MY TV GOT NO SOUND, says the not-so-wise little man

The boy was having a cough so we told him he couldn't have ice-cream.

"Mommy, can I just smell?"

Sniff.

Amidst changing channels for him nearly a million times, a meal, a lot of peanuts and biscuits, some pee stops, and some light snooze, we made the 8 hours flight to Narita where we transited for 2 hours.

Freshened up into pyjamas, ready for the second leg of the flight.

It was late by the time we rolled into the 2nd leg of flight (11 hours) from Narita to LAX, and thankfully, both children managed to sleep. I was uncomfortable, my (long) legs had not enough space to stretch, I ate the plane food and managed to snooze a couple of hours.... and then we landed.

Hooray to non-full flights that gave us more space

We collected our luggages, caught a shuttle bus to Thrifty (our car rental), and worked with the husband to navigate us to the hotel.

Slightly crazy faces (ok, maybe just mine) after a long-haul flight. This was the shuttle bus to the car rental shop.

It was noon when we landed, and by the time we made it to the hotel it was about 4pm. By then, the husband and I had not slept properly for 24 hours. It was pretty rough. We changed (cool weather!) and decided to grab a bite.

I don't think the temperature was particularly low, but because it was quite a difference from hot, humid Singapore, I was feeling it. We all bundled up before stepping out from the toasty room.

It felt good to walk a bit

Dinner @ The Cheesecake Factory

We stayed at a motel of sorts in Anaheim, just walking distance from Disneyland. It was not too poshy, but it was decent enough. There was hot water, a heater and hair dryer in the room and it felt fine (after we got used to the grimey feel on the carpet. Or maybe that was just me).

That night, as I laid flat out on the bed beside K, I felt my body creak with gratitude. I was dog tired. Our dinner was not even that great because everyone was so tired and could not even eat properly. Sleep. We all needed sleep.

It's been 2 days of non-stop movement in the air/on the road.
Goodnight world, hello America.

Back, #americaseahs no more

After three lovely weeks of being away, we are now back. 

We arrived in the wee hours of the day 0330 yesterday and it has been pretty fine trying to transit back to this time zone. The kids have both been up too early (by 5am) so I guess they are being hit by jet lag the worst, though they also have way less harsh schedules compared to adults. 

I have made it to work awfully late two days in a row, both times sustained through the day by coffee, sheer will and the want to keep my job. Hah. 

I kept notes of each day of our travel during the trip to remember as much as I can. It has been a lovely time for our family to bond and build lovely memories together and I am so thankful we have this lovely chance to do it. 

Until I get time to plough through my >2000 pictures and pen down our daily accounts of 20 days... I leave you with this picture. The last steps we took on USA ground before making our long way home. 

Oh and just because it is too adorable, here's another from our transit at Narita, 11-hours after the first leg of the flights where we did a two-hour stopover. Just as we hit the 1.5-hour mark, this little man could stay up no more.

Will be back with more stories and pictures to share!

29.5 hours*

I'm going to feel soooo awful tomorrow, when the alarm beeps. It's been yet another late night for me and I'm tired, so tired. The list of things to do seems endless, and once I complete one task there's another few lined up right behind.

After ploughing through my work for the past 2 hours, my last 10 minutes were spent checking in. Yup. Checking in for our holiday.

There's so much to think, and more to pack, have the husband and I planned enough? Do we know what to do? Have I bought/brought everything? The clothes sealed in the vacuum bag - they are so crumpled! Hope J's cough doesn't worsen. Thank goodness I brought Vit C for the trip. Oh, two packs of candy should last us for the way there. I'm cold now with the cool breeze in Singapore, what am I to do when we get there? Oh, it's so late, what else have I not done for work? Does it matter? Maybe not.


I'm so excited - and tired. One more burst tomorrow - I cannot wait.

*the hours until when we're on the way to the airport

Superman and his Superheros

So while the husband had a quiet and tight celebration with his boys on his birthday, and we did a family celebration with him where he had not one, but two cakes (that makes a total of three!); I planned another celebration for him. A small one, with a small group of family and friends. I also invested some time to think about how to make it a little funnier, a little more special and a little more memorable. 

Afterall, he's turning thirty five. 

It all happened quite easily, where I had a lightbulb literally going DING! in my head late one night. And as always, my partner in party-planning was immediately notified of my idea and we agreed that it's a done deal. I then involved all of the guests at this party and while I was thinking about it over a few weeks, everything really came together only days before the party day.

Step 1 - thanks to the sister who found this range of masks!

Cutting-in-progress

All lined up and ready for party

On the actual day, we had a nice dinner at two chefs. After dinner, we then surprised the unknowing husband with his gift. A Superman tee - with cape! He must have been slightly(?) surprised to see us all masked up. Giggles.

Superheros 

Taking flight

Through the mall he goes

Love this pic

Drunken shenanigans

A pretty epic moment when Batman flapped in to sing along with Superman

The night got fun, and more fun, and it ended at about.... the time that Superman didn't feel too super.

Dead log

Tee hee hee

Off home we go...

It was a nice night and I'm happy that we all made it out together. The fact that a small group of us, who all really mattered, took time out to come out, and don the silly fun masks together, that made it awesome.

Because we all care and love the man, Superman or not, drunk or otherwise, the love is real and these ties, are the real Superheros in what makes the world go round and a better place.

Peace out.

Happy birthday, to the husband. I hope you remember this special 3-5. I love you.

Beautiful children