Carlton Landing: Our First 4th of July

Our House

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We’re home from a fantastic holiday weekend at Carlton Landing, our first 4th of July in our new house. This was the first weekend we’ve been down that hasn’t entirely been a working weekend for us. We were finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel in terms of getting really settled. Up until now, there’s still been tons of work. And it’s not totally over yet, but we started to feel that sense of excitement about being able to entertain family and friends, and getting to really enjoy it ourselves.  It really was a magical weekend of friends, family, fireworks, sunsets over the lake, and making some amazing memories.

See also Mr. Blue Steel here below. One cool kid, I tell ya.

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We drove down Thursday  night and were greeted with two giant pallets from the Land of Nod on our front porch. FedEx was incredibly difficult about dropping these off because of our rural location, and after 2 weeks (!!) of back and forth (they actually asked me at one point to meet them out on the highway with my own truck to get the pallets!!! UM, NO) they finally arrived.   There were two twin sized beds to assemble, and also one upholstered daybed that came in one piece. The bedframes were a piece of cake to put together, but we ran into a few issues with the daybed. Since it was all one piece, we couldn’t fit it up our L-shaped stairwell, and it was decided that we had to heave it up into the loft. Here’s what this looks like (not pictured: me, biting my fingernails):

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Three guys, two ropes, and lots of heave-ho’ing – ALL THE EXCITEMENT, PEOPLE.  Thank GOODNESS for amazing neighbors. AMAZING.

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And now the daybed is happily nestled up in the loft, where it will stay For All Time, Or Until We Sell the House.   Also our queen sized boxspring will also be sold with the house one day as it too can never again come down the stairs. I also finally got around to applying those cute anchor vinyls to the loft wall – didn’t it turn out cute?  I want to order some of the stripe kits next. Waaaaaay easier than painting and far less messy.

Early Friday morning, a camera crew was in town to shoot a promo video for CL’s website, and the kids all met at the community garden to pick some carrots and feed the chickens. You guys, I have never in all my life seen such gorgeous produce as what came from the farm this week. Unbelievable. The tomatoes smelled ah-mazing. And I love that Jude was able to pick giant handfuls of carrots and see where real food really comes from. Plus there was lots of squealing over snails and worms and all those kinds of fun things.

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That night for the 4th of July, we were invited out on a boat with some friends to watch the sunset and fireworks. This is what Oklahoma does best – showstopper sunsets and color like you’ve never seen.

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We wrapped up the weekend with a giant community party on the 5th. My brother’s family came out and we were like little kids, all excited to show them around. It’s the first of any of our family to come down to see us, and we had a blast swimming in the lake, and attending the Carlton Landing Freedom Fest that night. They set up ping pong in the pavilion, and the kids had a carnival complete with face painting, lemonade stand, popcorn, bouncy houses, etc.  And the best part was at the end when we all walked to the end of the boardwalk in the dark and let all the dads and boys set off fireworks (which, ahem, goes against EVERYTHING I WAS EVER RAISED NOT TO DO. Somewhere Earl and I knew Mom was just wringing her hands over us setting off fireworks. You will shoot your eye out!!!). Nonetheless, magic under a starry sky.

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Here’s to a lifetime of new memories being made. I hope your 4th was fabulous too.

 

 

with love,
Rachel

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