Horses

One of the wishes that our two older girls had was to ride horses on vacation.  The intention was to ride in Myrtle Beach but with stables there charging as much as $100 per hour - we were unable to ride there.

Once we got to Asheville we found that horse time was much more reasonable and it works out quite well because the mountain views would have been hard to beat anywhere.  After letting mom off at the conference we went to saddle up.

This would be our trail boss - I can't remember his name

I worked on Emily Grace's hair - but after this picture 

These girls were ready to go!

So off we went

These girls rode like champions

We went up the mountain

Through the Cows

To some very beautiful country 

Near the top of the mountain the view was breathtaking 

After the ride we were tired, hungry, and mostly thirsty.  We found a Sonic, one that you could sit inside and eat - quite a novelty for these girls.

Emily found a rock to track down

Shortly after lunch we picked Megan up at the conference center and headed for home.  We were ready to get home but hated to see this time that we set aside just for us come to an end.  By the grace of God we will have more adventures and vacation (we hope and pray) will come again next year.  We already have talked about it a lot. Stay tuned, you never know where we may show up next.  I'll bet you can't guess.

Sometimes You Find a Stream

I checked first thing this morning and the fugitive was still at large which means that Sliding Rock was still closed.

So, after dropping mom off at the the conference the girls and I set out for the Western North Carolina Nature Center because we get in for free with our aquarium pass.

We touched reptiles yet again

Watched Otters

Olivia Describes the Cougars

Addison and Olivia decided to build a fort and were somewhat successful.  They have made plans to build a permanent one as soon as we get home.

Addison is hiding inside

Emily was engaged with other things

Finally the older girls joined in

There were animal puppets

And a bamboo gutter system

After lunch at Pizza Hut we went back to the Hotel for a little rest and yet another swim.

Our Hotel had this indoor / Outdoor Pool

We met mom at her conference and went in to see what it was all about because some students were going to be performing on unicycles at the end. The girls loved seeing what mom had been up to.  We picked mom up and decided to take a little walk in the botanical gardens at the University of North Carolina at Asheville Campus which was the home of Megan's Conference.

Another contender for best picture

Here we ran across a mountain stream.  Olivia had been dreaming of just such a stream to explore - finally, this was the place.

When we got back to the Hotel these rocks absolutely had to be painted

The rocks are beautiful and so are these girls and life with our family. After another rest-time we went out to dinner and then back to the Hotel for what we hope will be a restful night.