photo by: Courtesy of Bethany Olson

Carson Bowen, from left, Caleb Bowen and Mason Bowen pose Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025, with a 21-foot snowman they created with other family members.

The past week has been a winter wonderland for Lawrence residents given to building with snow.

One especially ambitious family spent the weekend erecting a 21-foot tall snowman in North Lawrence. It took two days and some help from a backhoe, but by Sunday afternoon, the six-segment creature — dubbed Frosty 2.0 — was standing tall in the 200 block of Lyon Street with a carrot nose and two eyes made out of coal. A stovepipe hat of cardboard, wrapped in duct tape and painted black, crowned the creation of Carson, Caleb, Mason, Charley and Taylor Bowen, and Bethany Olson and Asia Farrington.

Olson said Frosty 2.0 arose out of a desire to outdo Frosty 1.0 from 2013. That year, with a backhoe assist from his father’s excavating business, Caleb and family built a 14.5-foot snowman.

Frosty started as a few snowballs, he said at the time, and “it just went from there.”