Day in Asheville

Yesterday we drove a couple of hours down the road to Asheville, NC. It's such a cool town with so much to offer but yesterday we were just there to tour around the Biltmore and meet Eric, Marian, and Stella for dinner.

If you've never been to the Biltmore you're really missing out. It's the largest home in America and was built in the late 1800's to rival any French chateau. We hit every room in the house which seemed to go on and on and on. My favorite part was the basement that housed several kitchens, a laundry room, cook's quarters, a bowling alley, and a gym among other things. It really is an impressive place. Photography wasn't allowed inside the home so my only pictures are of the grounds which are equally if not even more impressive.


After our tour we headed over to Starbucks to meet up with Eric and Marian. Eric actually led my high school youth group although he wasn't much older than the "youth". He and Marian were married in 2000 a few months before Brent and I were and the four of us really hit it off the first time we spent time together as a group. They are such a great couple who we admire for so many reasons. They're ambitious but also socially conscious. They spent two years in the Peace Corps serving in Kirbati where Marian worked with children and Eric led several public health intiatives. When they moved back to the states they started a wedding videography business, Wedding Bell Videos. They're also both freelance writers. Truly, truly impressive people. Love them.

Their daughter, Stella, was born in September 2004 and it's been fun to call Marian with all my questions and new mom paranoia. Stella is a cute, cute kid and at 20 months she is B-U-S-Y! I really wanted to take some great photos of her but I haven't had much practice on babies that actually move. I ended up getting lots of shots of her back! Wow. I was not prepared. I think I'm going to enjoy Sarah's immobile days even more now! I loved watching Stella entertain Sarah - it was obvious that she really enjoyed being the "big girl" playing with the "baby".