California Family Vacation: USS Iowa Battleship

After we left Joe & Michelle's it was off to our last stop on our amazing vacation.  We headed off to Long Island to do some sightseeing, spend a few hours on the beach and then check into our hotel. 

Matt's late uncle Eddie served on the USS Iowa battleship and they have recently docked it at Long Island and turned it into a museum.  We decided that this would be a perfect place to visit before we spent the afternoon on the beach.  Little did we know that as Iowa residents we were able to tour the battleship for free. An extra perk for a fun lesson in history for the kids and a way for Matt to connect a little with a piece of his uncle's past. 

President F.D. Roosevelt stayed on the battleship during World War 2

We believe that Matt's uncle is in this picture.

California Family Vacation: Visiting the Ocean for the first time

During our scenic road trip with Joe, we stopped at a beach so the kids could finally see the ocean for the first time!!  Parking was crazy since it was the weekend and a beautiful day.  So Joe just ended up dropping us off and then drove to find a spot to park.  We were done before he found one and we just had him come back to pick us up.

The kids were beyond excited and were a little disappointed they didn't have suits on to jump right in!! 

Maxwell was mesmerized!

California Family Vacation: Visiting Matt's Aunt & Uncle

After we left Disneyland, we headed to Matt's aunt and uncle's house for a couple of days of family fun.  Shortly after we arrived, Matt's cousin's Christi and Shannon and their families.  The younger cousins all had a great time playing together...it took them no time at all to warm up to each other and start playing. 
Shannon, her husband Marc and I took the 4 younger cousins to the neighborhood and fun was had by all.  Maxwell started out a little tentative jumping into the really deep water but a little extra from Marc and he was keeping up Chloe & Brendan.  Kaylee wasn't interested in it though...too deep and crazy for her!  :) 

Back and Joe & Michelle's house, we enjoyed the beautiful weather, sat outside and enjoyed a great grilled dinner.  It was weird from us to not have to worry about closing the doors and letting bugs in the house.  But one or two fly's did show up to try and ruin our fun!  It turned into a mission to get those flys! 

While we were there Kaylee even lost a tooth!!  Thankfully the tooth fairy had no problems getting to Uncle Joe's house and found her tooth.

Joe took us on a beautiful beach drive to show the kids the ocean and do a little sight seeing.  Maxwell really enjoyed looking for all the expensive cars while we were driving.  The highlight for him was seeing a McLaren at a gas station and seeing the door open straight up!  I'll put ocean pictures from our visit in the next post...

Monday morning, we got up and dressed for our day at the beach.  Before we left, the kids had to get some pictures in with Great Uncle Joe! 

We had such a wonderful visiting (and meeting) our family in California!!  We could not have asked for a better time and thank Joe & Michelle for opening their home to us.