A winter carnival

On one of the coldest nights of the week, we trekked out with our wonderful friends the Kramers to the 125th St. Paul winter carnival! It quickly turned into a photo extravaganza for Amanda and I, while our sweet husbands carried around our hot chocolate. :) The ice sculptures were still wonderfully intact! It just amazed all of us how people could be that detailed and intricate in such massive blocks of ice! I'm still a bit dissapointed that the long standing tradition of the ice castle has gone by the way side, but there wasn't anything dissapointing about the crystal clear sculptures, the thousands of strands of white twinkly lights, the downtown St. Paul cityscape, or the company we were with!!! Although once our chins started to go numb, we were thankful to get back in the car. :)

Although this is the tiniest sculpture, (most sculptures are 6-8 feet high, and probably 10 feet wide) it signified the 125th year the city has been putting on this display!!

The carnival is located in Rice Park which is like THEE central location in St. Paul. If it wasn't so cold we were planning on ice skating there too! They also have a parade, fireworks, and in good old MN fashion, Pronto Pups. :)

How they did this, we will never know! But we definitely thought about if for a bit!!

We had to pose quickly... Jared was a bit uncomfortable. ;)

After our mid-week cold spell, we have been enjoying balmy tempertures around 20-34 degrees! I went to church in flats on Sunday (with cute socks of course) and wasn't in any way regretting it! And in honor of that, pictures to leave you with in anticipating of coming warmer months! (And one of the dog because I can't keep my camera away from her cute face...)

A beautiful blooming Amaryllis at Mom & Dad's house. It's been fun to see it grow from a tiny bud to a 5 blossomed, 1.5 foot tall flower! I highly recommend one if you come across it!

Jared and I have been eating grapefruit by the dozen lately! (Literally). We're on a kick.

(and hello from the dog - she's making a cameo appearance again)

Have a wonderful start to your week!