Asheville Birthday Visit

We went to Asheville for Aunt William's birthday.  The drive from our house to hers has been as quick as 5 1/2 hours, this time however, we set a new record for the longest travel time - 11 hours.  That is a record I hope we do not set again.

Meredith rode an antique horse at the Tobacco Barn, a huge antiques shop

Asheville has several great chocolate shops.  Claire took us to her favorite and they were just dipping some marshmallows in chocolate so we went to an antique shop where I found a small round pyrex dish in my favorite pattern - crazy daisy - yay.  When we returned the marshmallows had set.  Audrey couldn't decide between that and the homemade gellato, so we let her get both but she had to save the marshmallow for later.  Meredith got milk chocolate M&M bark, I got the best dark chocolate pecan turtle I have ever had.  Unfortunately we left the marshmallow in Will's fridge, so I promised Audrey she could try dipping her own marshmallow in melted chocolate chips.  She became a chocolate artist!

Audrey becoming a chocolatier with marshmallows

Audrey and Aunt William learning some basics of wrestling

Claire had a friend offer to give the girls a basic jujitsu class in the park, which Audrey loved.  Then we hit a couple of the local parks with amazing playgrounds - out of wood! Around here the playgrounds are all plastic and plastic coated metal. So that was fun.

Audrey hanging upside down at the playground

We went hiking up in the Pisgah National Forest to a place the girls and I found over spring break, Lake Powhatan.  It has a lovely little sandy beach area in one stretch and Meredith, Audrey, and I rolled up our pants, took off our shoes and waded in.  Meredith managed to get herself completely soaked.

Ryan and the girls drove a day ahead of me to visit his sister in Winston-Salem.  I don't know how I didn't get a picture of cousin time, but the girls both had "sleep overs", Audrey and Tori in one room and Meredith and Ellie in another.  This was Meredith's first "sleep over" so she was super excited, though after a day of hard playing was asleep as soon as her head hit her pillow.

Claire drove me to meet up with the rest of the crew and then we drove back.  Luckily the drive back was uneventful and quick.