The Jackson Five: Father's Day Weekend

For Father's Day weekend, we decided to go to Asheville on Saturday morning--we went to a Western Carolina nature that Em loved--there were sheep she could pet and brush,

and otters playing in the water that she just thought were fascinating. I didn't get any pictures of the actual otters, but she liked posing with all the animal statues.

There was a little stage set up with puppets, so Em enjoyed putting on a puppet show for us.

Funny how real this wolf looks!

There was a boardwalk that led you through the whole park, and about halfway through, there was a playground with all kinds of climbing structures. It was a nice place for us to have a snack and take a little break while Em played for a while.

That afternoon, we headed to Zen Tubing on the French Broad River. I had read about this in a magazine and we really wanted to try it--we're so glad we did! We parked the car and the shuttle took us about four miles up the river where we picked up our tubes and got in. We rented a separate tube for our cooler and all tied together with the lanyards that are attached to the tubes.

We made two mistakes--one, we didn't make time for Em to have a nap before we went, so by the time we had been on the river a couple of hours, she was getting tired and was ready to "get back on land," as she put it. Our other mistake was that we only got one paddle! The river was pretty calm (these weren't like white water rafting rapids), and where we hit still places and the current wasn't moving us much, he had to paddle to keep us moving. The weather was perfect though, and it was really nice and relaxing. That night, we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Biltmore Village and got back to the hotel for an early bedtime.

On Sunday, we arranged to meet up with my dad for brunch--my mom was spending time in Wilmington with Jason and Jenn, so he was by himself and doesn't live far from Asheville. Em was excited to see Papa, and proudly gave him the Father's Day card she wrote in!