Where Are We?

This home has 34 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and it's filled with one of a kind furniture and artwork from all over the world...

There are over 8000 acres of stunningly gorgeous rolling forested hills...


including acres and acres of beautifully manicured gardens...

a vineyard and a greenhouse!

So did we hop on a plane and fly to England to visit an old manor house? 

Nope!

We spent the day at the home of George and Edith Vanderbilt in Asheville, NC!
George is the grandson of the railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt and clearly had inherited an awful lot of money.

It's called the Biltmore Mansion.
"Bilt" from his ancestral town of Bildt, Holland.  "More" from the old English term for hilly countryside.

Built in 1895, it is the largest private residence in the United States.  It was completely overpriced and over-the-top opulent, but still worth the visit.   The attention to detail was amazing and it was quite the American version of a European castle.    We actually looked into seeing if we could buy it, but it was a tad out of our price range.   Plus I decided that needing a map to get around our own house might get a little old after a while.

Since we can't stay here and make it the  "Gooldmore", I guess we will head back home tomorrow.
It's been a fantastic week of vacation and next week we will spend slurping up every last bit of summer we can get, because school starts the next week!

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CAUTION: Llamas on Board

Taking a hike can be invigorating and satisfying, but it can also be long and tedious….

especially if it's hot and you have to tote around a gazillion water bottles on your back.  

Yesterday we had a hike along a creek to a waterfall planned, but the weather was hot and oppressively humid.    So what did we do?  

We hired slave labor (i.e. llamas) to tote our food and drinks for us! 

Meet Taylee and Rocky...

 JJ and Blackfoot,

and White Lightning and General Jackson! 

They made for hard-working and entertaining walking companions. 

Sure, they also had stinky breath and insatiable appetites...

but they were also lovable...

and oh so cute!  

They brought us up to this waterfall where we had a picnic lunch...

and then over the longest swinging bridge in the whole USA!

 It was a hike we won't soon forget!

Thank you to Steve at Smoky Mountain Llama Treks for an amazing experience!

Ellie is already asking when we can come back! 

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On Top of the World

Today we took an elevator to the top of the world.

The view from the top of Chimney Rock was stunning and inspiring.  

We soaked up the view and reflected on the beauty and awe of this magnificent world that God has created.

Afterward we hiked to Hickory Nut Falls, 

where a couple of us literally got soaked. 

 During the afternoon we took a trek to the nearby Lake Lure…the same lake you can see in the distance in the first couple of pictures on this post.   It was as lovely up close as it was from a distance. 

The fish were plentiful, but not quite as big (or as fishy) as we had hoped to catch!

All in all, it was a great day enjoying spending time with family in this beautiful part of the world!


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Doing Hard Things

One of the things that I really want my kids to know is that they can do hard things.  

I want them to be able to look in the face of life's challenges and know that deep down inside that with  hard work, perseverance, and a firm faith and trust in God's plan that they can overcome.  

Whether it be a huge project, a health challenge, a difficult relationship, or  whatever it is that may make them feel overwhelmed… I want them to know that with God, nothing is impossible.   He will be there to ease their burdens, comfort their hurts, and give them strength beyond their own to face their challenges.

To help our kids to internalize this very important piece of knowledge, we like to participate in family activities that are physically challenging.   It is our hope that by giving them opportunities to push the limits of their physical capacities, that they will learn that they are strong and can do hard things.  

Yesterday we climbed a mountain.   

Sure it was a far cry from hiking to a mountaintop in the Rockies, but it was still a hard hike that was a challenge for us.    

Today we participated in a ropes course at Treetops Adventure Park in Asheville. 

We strapped on our protective gear...

and scaled through the treetops for a few hours.  

We ziplined...

climbed across precarious bridges...

made new friends...

and in general pushed ourselves to new heights. 

Most of us started off a little tentatively, 

but after traipsing through some of the easier courses, 

we gained confidence and soon were scaling to new heights.

Adam and Glen made it through four of the five courses (blue, green, yellow, orange)...

While Cami and Emma sailed through all five, including the black diamond of them all….the red course.  The red course was the highest of all the courses and had the most difficult tasks to perform, including walking across the infamous hanging hula hoop trek.  I watched a grown man scream all the way through that task!

 We had mentioned Ellie's seizures to the staff before starting, but  they seemed unconcerned by them since she would be strapped into her harness securely at all times.  She ended up having several seizures while on the courses, but thankfully she  made it through the blue and green courses a couple times each without incident.  By the end she was a pro at hooking and "tweezling" her carabiners herself!  

After a few hours of working hard, we were all exhausted, hungry and dripping with sweat.  

But we were also beaming with a sense of accomplishment that we CAN do hard things!!!  

(And enjoy a sweet reward at the end!)