Holiday Fun for The Family: Chill

Merry Monday to you all! What a weekend. We hosted a cocktail party, took part in the annual gingerbread house building  competition at Grammy and Papa’s and wrapped up our shopping. It was a whirlwind and so much fun. This week we are planning to do a ton of cuddling and just enjoy this special time. Speaking of family time, we recently spent a day at Chill. It’s a winter wonderland in Long Beach centered around ice sculptures and activities. We actually surprised the kiddos and scooped them up from school early to go enjoy this day. It was a total blast. And might I add . . . FREEZING!! Here is a quick recap. {black boots, similar white coat} While some activities are outside, others are indoors and the ice kingdom boasts temperatures of 7 degrees. What what? That is so the gorgeous ice sculptures do not melt. My hat goes off to the sweet, freezing people that work inside the ice kingdom. They hand you huge parkas before embarking on the ice tour and ice slides. Thank goodness. I must admit, I was the wimp of the crew. After ten minutes in the ice kingdom I was a popsicle. So so fun. . . so so cold. Every sculpture made from ice was incredible. Even those walls and ice slides are all carved from ice. I couldn’t get enough of the kids bundled up in their huge parkas. After freezing our behinds off, the kids naturally wanted ice cream. So once we came out of the ice kingdom, gelato it was! So yummy. The kids savored every bite of it.       Next up was ice skating! So hilarious. My poor son hit the ice like he was a professional . . . only to find out he immediately would fall to the ice. Poor guy was a comedy show with arms flailing everywhere. We found out you could rent these cool blue push carts. They saved the day. He spent most of the evening running behind it. Still totally out of control, but on his feet! We also snuck in some ice tubing which was a super fun. I could do that all day.   After leaving the Chill event, you were invited to tour The Queen Mary. If you are not familiar with this enormous ship, it is based out of Long Beach and was primarily used as a leisure ship and hosted Hollywood stars, foreign diplomats, and even royalty. It was fascinating to walk around and see all of the rooms where stars would gather with the captain. There are rumors of it being haunted so I won’t lie. I walked very close to my hubby and kids! Such a special outing for our family. My son was so dear. As we were walking to the car he said, “I love doing adventures with our family when it’s new for all of us.” That pretty much summed up the event. So fun and it goes without saying that it thoroughly wiped out all four of us. Tired, happy children. That’s a win. Overall, we loved everything about this day, but if you are local and considering attending, please know ahead of time that it is quite pricey. I never like to be surprised with things like that. Just sayin’! Haagen-Dazs has chosen us to be brand influencers on their "Moments for Me" campaign. Share the moments you cherish in your everyday life using hashtag #HDMoment, and Haagen Dazs might share it over on their tumblr page.Häagen-Dazs and the “Moment for Me” campaign provided us with this outing, but the moments of togetherness and gratitude are ours to keep.