Weekend Visit

*** Caution: this is a huge post. Gigantic. Plus a billion pictures. Feel free to stop now and just skip to the next one. Don't say I didn't warn you. ***

Ken's sister, Kendra, came with Lee and her kids Brooke and Avery from lovely, warm Florida to spend the weekend with us -- and the snow. It was the first time the kids remember seeing snow -- and boy did we have enough for them :) We were lucky yesterday to have a gorgeous winter day here. Almost 30 degrees (heat wave for us) and beautiful blue skies. These are the days that make me love winter.

The kids played outside in the snow all morning and then we took them for their first sledding experience. They all did great and had a blast (well, except for Evie who wasn't too sure about this whole thing). We spent the evening checking out the Mall of America and most of the kids went on their first real roller coaster ever. They were all (really, really) scared but were, again, just great. Luke and Kevin have basically be running around after Brooke and Avery for 48 hours straight and Baloo has been loving all the people in the house. We all went off to church today and are looking forward to dinner all together. Now we just have to convince them to move out here too!

Avery's first taste of the snow

Brooke checking it out too . . .

Kevin and Luke making snow angels

Uncle Ken playing sled dog

Ethan, AKA stay-puffed-marshmallow man
Avery loves the snow!

Evie all bundled up

And (kind of) liking the snow

Luke and Kevin toting the sleds up to the hill

Some great sledding shots:

Luke showing his sad face after he went down a HUGE hill with Daddy, they both flipped off the sled and he landed face-first in the snow with Ken on top of him.

The Barringer sibs - Kendra, Ken and Jeremy

Our Barringer family

Jeremy, Mindy, Kevin and Ethan