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Monday, January 19, 2015

feeling the frozen love

before the bean and i headed down to anaheim to spend the afternoon at disneyland and then meet up with lilcee and dailygluttony at our hotel for the night, i scrambled to finish her costume for the kids race:


she was super excited to wear it, and i was super proud of myself for being able to put it together.  yay for last minute sewing!

since our passes were about to expire, i wanted to get her to california adventure so that we could see all of the frozen-themed attractions that had just opened.  


our first stop was the singalong show, located in the newly-remodeled muppets theater.  i didn't take pictures till after we'd done everything we wanted to do.  it wasn't really this late when we arrived.


i'd heard that there were fastpasses for this show, and we walked up about 10 minutes before the next one was scheduled to start.  we managed to snag seats off to the side, but got a decent view and didn't have to wait long.  bonus!



the theater was packed full of excited little elsas and mildly amused parents.  when the lights went down and the narrators bounced out onto the stage, there was much excitement and lots of cheering.


it got even louder when anna came out to say hello.


as the narrators told the cliff's notes of the movie, they showed clips of it on the giant screen.  the audience was invited to sing loudly along as the soundtrack played karaoke-style with the lyrics on the screen.  of course, this song got lots of love - from kids and adults alike.  i mean, by now, the whole freaking plant knows the words to "let it go."


kristoff joined in the fun, too.


the loudest, longest, most enthusiastic applause and cheers came for the ice queen herself.




and then it was over.


our next stop was right next door:



we didn't really have to wait 45 minutes to get in, but of course when we did, the snow area was temporarily closed for refreshing.  when you have a shitton of feet stomping all over man-made snow, it needs to be chunked up with shovels and rakes and stuff.


so we looked around, checking out the snack bar and shop.  




there was some live entertainment, too.


when we turned the corner, we found this:


well, of course we wanted to meet olaf.  and of course, that was a whole other line to wait in.  i hadn't noticed that there were two lines on either side of the building - the one we'd waited in just to go inside, and this one:


apparently, you were supposed to wait in line to receive a pager.  once you had it in your hand, you were guaranteed a spot in line to meet olaf and were free to wander around the snow play area or go back outside and enjoy other attractions within range.  the cast member at the entrance noticed the irritated look on my face (because i'm a terrible poker player and i can't hide my feelings for anything) and came over to assure me that the wait for the pager would be minimal, but our turn to meet olaf could take as long as the quoted time on the sign.  so we trudged in and joined the line...because by then we needed a warm hug too.

and it's a good thing we got in when we did, because not long after that the sign was changed to this:


eff that noise.  

and true to his word, the cast member handed us this magical device after about 15 minutes.


with the snow play still unavailable, we went next door and took a ride through monstropolis on the monsters, inc. ride.  back inside olaf's domain, we watched as the cast members continued to work on fluffing the snow up.


when our pager went off, the bean scurried around to the back of the building and was greeted by the sweetest snowman you ever did see.



after we waved goodbye to olaf, it was finally time to play in the snow.



and just like in the movie, the giant snowflake over our heads went off and snow fell from the sky.


we were lucky enough to time things just right and managed to snag a spot in line for the toboggan ride.  it was super fun.






we would've gone again, but by then the line had gotten crazy long.  oh well.  instead, we left the building to see what else there was to see.



on a potty break, i spotted a familiar face:  caroline rhea, who i recognized from our days of watching "sabrina, the teenage witch."  no, i didn't take this in the restroom.  i did the civilized thing and waited to secretly snap this photo outside.  heh.


our last stop was the bean's most favorite thing to do in all of disneyland:


since everything in this section of the park is apparently all frozen, all the time, the only characters being drawn were olaf and marshmallow, the ice monster.  we've drawn olaf a bunch of times before, but our timing wasn't great this time and drew him one more time before we got to draw his "little" brother.


we met up with our friends at the hotel, which was literally across the street from the toy story parking lot.  after checking in and getting settled, we made our way to a local create-your-own-pizza place for a little carb loading.


with a super duper early wake-up call the next morning, we were all in bed by 10.  i'd say it was a pretty awesome start to a fun weekend.

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