Disneyland Days....with a 2-year old!!

So this year for our family vacation, we decided to take Shelby to Disneyland. We went once a few years ago before we had her and we had a blast, so we thought "this is going to be soo much fun, she's going to looove it!!" Well.... the trip overall was fun, but Disneyland wasn't quite what we were expecting. We bought 2-day park hopper tickets (which by the way is TON of money, and we didn't even pay for her!) in advance online. So that first day we got up early and drove straight there.
We woke her up at 6am, and she didn't sleep a wink the whole way up there. So that means by the time we got there she was ready for a nap. This pic is of her passed out as we're just pulling up to Disneyland! Part of me wanted to let her sleep, but since we already spend a ton in tickets we didn't want to waste the day!

Shelby waiting for the monorail, she was soo excited about the "bus". I'm pretty sure we could have rode this all day and she would have had a blast...

Shelby on the carousel.. thats right, the carousel. Not on a ride, or seeing Mickey Mouse, but on the same kind of carousel they have at our local mall. This was one of the only things that she could go on that was age appropriate and didn't have a ridiculously long line! We probably went on it 15 times!

Shelby and dad in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle. Oh and that was another thing, our camera's memory card was acting up so we got barely any pics. Most of them are on Ryan's phone. She got really cranky and didn't understand why she had to wait sooo long to go on rides, not pleasant!
NOTE TO SELF: 1) Don't take a 2 year old to Disneyland. Way too much going on for them, and without a nap they're going to be cranky no matter where you are! Not worth the money!!!
2) Never go in June, or summertime for that matter! It was soo packed with families that have kids that just got out of school. Im not exaggerating when I say that every ride for Shelby was an hour wait! And no, most of her rides didn't have fast passes available.
3) Don't go to a theme park for 2 days when your 7 months pregnant. We walked... a lot! My back was so shot by the time we got back to the motel!
On the next leg of our trip, after we were done at Disneyland, we took Shelby to the Santa Ana Zoo. She loved it! She loves animals anyway, so Im glad we went. This is us in the "farm animal" area.
Haha they have fake cow that you can "milk" (its actually just water, but still fun!) Shelby barely got up to the cow before it mooed, then she ran off cause it scared her. But now she walks around telling people that she milked a cow :)
My favorite thing about our trip was all the time she got to spend with her dad. It was much needed since he's such a busy guy with work and school! It made the whole trip worth it. She was his little buddy.. so cute!
Day three we hit up the zoo and the beach. When we got to the beach she had also just fallen asleep in the car so she was a little cranky at first, but then she had lots of fun! She still asks me everyday if can go to the beach, oh and if she can milk a cow too!

We had a lot of fun overall, but we learned a lot. Like the fact that it doesn't take much for a 2- year old to have a good time. The zoo and the beach would have been plenty of fun for her. Oh well, you live and learn. I still like Disneyland, but next time we go she'll be quite a bit older and not nearly as busy. I loved the quality family time though, it was so overdue!