4th of July

4th of July festivities are big in my family.  I grew up going to my Aunt Sundie and Uncle Wayne's boat house on Grapevine Lake with the WHOLE family.  It was so much fun!  Since our families are growing the boat house isn't quite big enough to hold the whole Tate clan. In the past years, Zac and I have always gotten together with our best friends and hung out and watched the fireworks.  This year was our first year away from all of that so it was nice to still have family to celebrate with!  We started the day visiting the Thimble Islands in Branford, CT.   They're basically a bunch of islands that people build houses on and come out for the summer to live on.  Most of them have no electricity or running water so they make do by taking boat trips back and forth to the harbor to get the necessary items to survive.  Yes, I said survive.  

We ate lunch at a seafood place and then headed back to New Haven.  We were all pretty tired so we took naps and then met back up later to grill out and have a cook out before the fireworks.  Here in the east, people say "We're having a BBQ" when referring to grilling out.  BBQ=there's actually no BBQ. Sad.

(Four) passengers set sail that day for a three hour tour...#GiligansIsland #forSusie]

Captain Dave was very entertaining! 

My dad loves him some lobster!

Strawberry Coconut Bundt Cake

Played cards out on the deck before the fireworks. 

Playing Hand & Foot-I believe Zac & I were whoopin' them here! ;)

Being cute as always.

Fireworks show at East Rock Park.  We just had to walk right down the street from our house to see them! So convenient, and the weather was perfect, too!

Happy 4TH of July!!