Memorial day weekend we left Maddie with her grandparents and headed up to Massachusetts to celebrate my husband’s 30th birthday with family and friends.
The celebration kicked off at my in-laws house on Cape Cod. They have a beautiful house right on a river with a big backyard perfect for playing yard games.
We spent some time on the deck catching up on what everyone has been up to (the two adorable kids you see are my niece Riley and nephew Colton, and the sweet Boxer you see is my puppy-niece Sophie!) and enjoying the warm sun and great weather.
We also took the boat out on the water by the house. Tubing was unfortunately out of the question this trip, it wasn’t quite warm enough yet. Maybe next trip though!
For dinner one night we had the most amazing, freshest lobsters. They were taken out of the traps that same day we ate them! Hard to believe I had never tried one up until a couple years ago.
What would a birthday celebration be without cake?! We had an awesome vanilla cake with vanilla chocolate chip frosting from Twist Bakery in Millis. That’s our family’s go-to spot for cakes. Their facility is 100% gluten free and uses no hydrogenated fats, artificial colors, or corn syrup. You won’t even know they’re missing!
On our last full day of visiting we took my father-in-law’s big boat out on the ocean to do some fishing! He has a charter boat called Intruder Team and takes lots of people fishing every year. Our friends Lindsay and Brett came with us, it was lots of fun!
First we went fishing for some good live bait: mackerel. We caught a bunch of them for a solid stash to use while fishing for striped bass.
Then it was time to move on to catching the real stuff! I was hoping to catch our dinner 🙂 Striped bass is super healthy for you. It has 165 calories per 6-ounce serving, with 30 grams of protein! If you haven’t had it before, it has a meaty but flaky texture and there are LOTS of ways to prepare it to taste delicious on your dinner plate. I love putting some ghee and lemon juice with fresh herbs on top then baking or grilling it.
We caught one!! A delicious 38″ fish. Fun day out on the water, and it felt so good to catch our food for the evening 🙂
The final part of Shawn’s birthday celebration was our traditional breakfast in bed (which you might remember from my birthday post last year). The person celebrating their birthday gets breakfast in bed plus presents! It really makes you feel special on your big day. Whoever’s birthday it is gets to pick their breakfast menu, then the other family members prep it and serve it to you, along with your gifts. It’s so fun!
Shawn picked an omelet with cheese, tomatoes and spinach, a side of bacon, and I surprised him with another side of blackberries (and his vitamins of course!).
Maddie likes to see if her super cute face will win her any bacon!
You’ll notice below I tend to stick to the food gifts.
All in all I think he’ll agree it was a great birthday celebration. I think 30 will be one of his best year’s yet!
