To the Mountains and Back Again

We spent a very quiet week in Asheville last week! We went with Mom and Shannon, and we enjoyed a lovely home just on the outskirts of town. The back deck was my favorite place, which is evidenced by the one picture I actually managed to take:

 The sunsets over the mountains did not disappoint, and Mom and I spent too much time identifying birds. The kids loved having the basement as their kid cave, complete with air hockey and foosball. They also ended every day in the hot tub. It's not a bad way to spend a week.

In addition to lots of quality time just being, we did have two big adventures!

Tuesday, we took a three hour trail ride that included some real garnet mining:

 Evan loved breaking open the rocks to get out the garnets, and Issa had an eye for the stones in the creek:

 I found nothing, but it was lovely to just sit by the creek and look.

The guide snapped this amazing pic of all of us:

 The horses were beautiful, as were the views. Evan loved this little guy:

 Issa would spend her life on a horse if she could:

 Us on the trail:

 Brad and I had slightly ornery horses who didn't play well with others--hence the gap.

Look at my cowboy:

 Wednesday, we went to Biltmore, where we took zero pictures. We started with a behind the scenes tour where we couldn't, and then I think we just forgot. The tour, though! We got to see the rooms where they do a lot of the archival work and hear more about the history of how the home was opened to the public. The highlights, though, were the time we spend in Edith's closet and in the butler's pantry. These areas are usually closed to visitors, and we have always wondered what was back there! Issa's face when they told us where we were going was priceless!

We spent the Fourth at the house, where we finally finished this beast of a puzzle:

 And Aunt Shannon made sure the kiddos were appropriately attired:

 And we had one more dinner on the porch.

 We also did way too many sparklers:

 Sparklers are so fun as a kid and terrifying as a mom.

Friday, we headed back home, but only after feeding the koi one more time:

I love vacations that are a mix of adventure and just being. It's so rare that we get to just sit these days, and having time to do just that was a true gift...