Celebration Weekend: Memorial Day 2021
I know it seems like we’re always down to business, but I promise, we do take a break from all the planning and working at the property to relax and have a little fun. Enter…Memorial Day Weekend 2021… because it’s a memory that deserves a permanent spot in this journal.
So, we closed on the property in March 2021. We had an agreement with the previous owner to allow him 60 days after our closing date to clean everything out and move all his equipment. He did and about the middle of May we took possession of the property. We decided to celebrate the purchase of the land by hosting a Memorial Day Weekend party. We were so excited to show everyone.
So, as we do in my family, I called my mom and sisters and we started planning all the food for the party. Y’all, when it comes to food in my family, it’s basically a “go big or go home” situation. I tell you what, the whole thing just started snow-balling, but in the best possible way. It went from, “we’ll just pick up some Buddy’s BBQ for dinner” to “hey, I rented a camper for the weekend”. :)
So, here’s how it went…Jason and I had planned to camp there the whole weekend (no real reason, we were so excited to own this land, we just wanted to be there), then my sister decided she might “camp” too and then my parents were like, “Well, shoot. We don’t want to miss out on all the fun, but we’re not sleeping on ground so we’ll just rent a camper”. I mean, we went from 0-100 in no time. We all arrived Friday afternoon and, I’ll never forget, it was pouring the rain and cold. I totally had this whole Pinterest worthy cookout planned out, complete with outdoor string lights, a bonfire and even a fancy s’mores dessert. Mother Nature completely rained on my parade…literally. Luckily, we had the barn so we were able to move everything into the barn and stay in the dry. But y’all, the roof in the barn is metal and, let me tell you, the rain on that metal roof was so loud you could barely think let alone have a conversation with someone.
Friday evening was fairly low key. We did end up getting Buddy’s BBQ for dinner that night and just spent the evening visiting. We literally had no agenda, which was so nice. My mom’s twin sister, Aunt Jean, came and she’s always a hoot to have around. Her and my mom shared stories from their childhood and growing up on the dairy farm. It was so much fun and we literally laughed until we were couldn’t breathe.
On Saturday, we invited lots of friends and family to come anytime throughout the day and stay as long as they wanted to. We had hamburgers and hotdogs planned for 6:00 that evening. My dad brought his grill so him and Jase tag teamed grilling up dinner. Most of the day was spent just relaxing, visiting and grazing from the spread of finger foods. My Mom and Dad brought a volleyball net, so we set that up for the kids and they played lots of volleyball and kickball. My sister, Ashley, and my nephew, Wes, brought their Polaris Ranger so we had a UTV to hop on and give people a tour of the land. We didn’t have much planned, just family time and food. It was a slower pace that day. Some people took a nap in the middle of the day and some stayed busy playing games. Jase and a few others even spent a few hours that afternoon cleaning up an area of the creek and limbing up the trees. We didn’t really intend to do any work, but we’re kinda wired that way. 😬
Saturday evening rolled around and our friends and the rest of the family started showing up. In all seriousness, it overwhelmed me to share this place with everyone. We have such an amazing support system and a network of prayer warriors that were praying for us to finalize the purchase of the land and to finally be to a point that we could share it with them made my heart want to explode. I know it’s just land and for some may not seem like a big deal, but Jason and I have dreamed about owning land in Blount County for years. We’ve talked about it since the day we got married 15 years ago. We’ve always had a goal to buy land and build our forever home once our kids were on their own. I always thought we’d buy a 1 acre lot…I never dreamed we would land almost 20 acres. Even though we’re focused on building some Airbnb cottages on the property now, it truly feels like home to us and one day plan to build our forever home here.
