Hey, guys, thanks for all the advice and suggestions. It helped a lot to see the different points of view but the one statement that stood out was "The K-5 is a great camera, but if you don't support it with nice lenses and stuff, it's kind of like putting budget tires on a sports car."

I already know that I want a couple of nice primes so it makes sense to get a less expensive body and have more to spend on some better lenses. Especially since it will be my first dslr. In the meantime I think I'm going to be having a lot of fun with the camera I ultimately purchase. While I'm going to check out the other cameras that were suggested I'm leaning toward getting a K-r. While it doesn't have weather sealing, one of you guys had yours out in very cold snowy weather so it should be fine. I would try to avoid getting my camera wet whether it was weather sealed or not.

Thanks again for taking the time to answer my question. Hope to be joining the forum in the very near future and sharing my experiences with my "new" Pentax.