Asheville with Friends

Asheville is an awesome city.  We found that Asheville with friends is even more awesome!  One of the problems with being so transient is missing our friends.  We were happy to be close enough to our hometown that some of our close friends were able to come for a visit.  The time spent with our friends was cherished time.

Our first weekend in Asheville, we were joined by the Cozart family.   The time spent together included a J.Crew warehouse sale, a nearby playground, eating at Walk, Biltmore Farm, popping in and out of shops downtown Asheville, eating at Farm Burger, eating at Asheville Pizza and Brewery, and getting wet in Splashville.  If you want to have adult conversation during dinner, then Asheville Pizza and Brewery is the place to go.  There is a family room that is lined with arcade games and cartoons being played on projectors.  Since it is a closed room, the kids roam around free.  It's wonderful to have them entertained and having fun.  The adults also had fun playing while we waited for our food.  We played Ellen's Head's Up game…so fun!

The kids had a lot of fun at the Biltmore Farm area.
There were a lot of different animals to pet as well as a playground nearby. 

Amelie loved holding a 3 day old chick.

The kids would chase each other through the shrub maze, but would cut in and out of the shrubs instead of staying on the path.  They didn't quite understand that was cheating.  

The following weekend the Green family came for a visit.  Again, we tried to fill the time with as much fun and good food as would could manage.  Our time included eating at White Duck Tacos (one of our favorites), getting soaked in Splashville, playing in our yard and with the hammock, enjoying ice-cream cones on our back porch, hiking Craggy Gardens, attending Box Turtle Day at the NC Arboretum, eating BBQ at Luella's.  The visit was fast, but we were so thankful they came!

It's hard to believe that our kids are old enough to have their own kid table.  They enjoyed being independent from the adults just as much as we enjoyed being able to talk and catch up.

All of the kids did an excellent job hiking.  

The view from the top of Craggy was cloudy so we stopped at one of the LookOut points to take some pictures with the mountains.

Sweet friends walking through the Arboretum together!

Liam trying to mimic Farrah's cartwheels.

We watched trained dogs searching for box turtles in the woods.  At one point they asked for volunteers to hide pretend box turtles and then watched the dogs find them.  Bella, Amelie, and Farrah made a group to hide one of the turtles.

Liam has embraced his role as monster/dragon/whatever attacker of girls.  They are throwing small apples at each other.

The hammock was a hit!  Who knew it could be so entertaining?! :)

Farrah and Liam enjoy the swing in Mrs. Gayle's yard. 

Bobby and Chris entertaining themselves (and anyone watching) while waiting for our table at Luella's BBQ.