Bentleyville

We went to a place called Bentleyville last night about a half hour away. Some guy has this love for Christmas lights so he started collecting them and putting them up in his yard. Eventually he opened it up to the public so people can come walk through and see the Christmas lights. They have free cookies and cider. They also have Santa there (for those whose children aren't terrified of him) and you can make s'mores around the fires. The whole thing is free. You park your car and take a school bus to the place and walk through. It's really cool and Sophia loved it - almost as much as Ben. To give you an idea of how many lights there are - they have over 600 snowflake lights put up in the trees.

It was quite the exciting night too. On the way home we decided to try to take a different way back. We ended up making a wrong turn and going through Proctor. Ben was so busy trying to figure out what went wrong that he didn't notice the 30 mph sign. He got pulled over for speeding but we prayed a lot and the guy didn't even give us a ticket! Needless to say, he won't be speeding anytime soon.

a walk in the park

Today it was much nicer outside so we decided to venture out to Chester Park with the kids for a walk. It was really fun and Sophia and I really enjoyed eating the snow together!
-Jenny




As you can see, Caleb enjoyed himself as much as the rest of us!

So cold...

...but so beautiful. When I got up this morning it was around 7 degrees below on the thermometer. On my way back from dropping Sophia off at preschool I noticed how awesome the lake looked. I couldn't resist stopping home to get my camera and driving to a couple spots to take some pictures. Don't worry, I left Caleb in the warm car while I took the photos. In case you've never been to Duluth when the lake looked like this, the white stuff is steam because Lake Superior is actually warmer than the air outside! You can click on the pictures if you want to see a bigger view of them.
-Jenny

Baking supplies

Notice anything unusual on our baker's rack? Caleb has found a new place to play. I probably shouldn't have taken pictures of him because it only will encourage him...but it was just so funny!
-Jenny

Gingerbread Cookies

We made gingerbread cookies with Sophia Friday night. We had a great time. Of course, after awhile I realized I needed to push the buttons and eyes in for her because they were practically being pushed out the other side of the cookies! The cookies turned out great, though, for our first time making them! It was a really good recipe.
Jenny

Morning Run

This morning I got up at 6am and went for a great run through Hartley Nature Area–about five miles as the sun was coming up. I saw lots of animal footprints, one rabbit and and scared two deer. It was an amazing morning, with freshly fallen snow. I've recently decided to begin running more regulary and I'm absolutely loving it. I hope that it can continue despite the craziness of having two children and the temperatures falling. And, by the way, no I didn't take a camera with me on the run...I found this picture online, but figured I'd give you a visual.
–Ben