An Awesome View of Life

My granddaughter turned two last week and these are what she got from her us.  She LOVES playing with them.  Shouldn't every little girl have a John Deere front end loader and dump truck? She was one dirty little girl when she came in from playing today.   Now to get Bapa to build her a real sandbox. 

This isn't as creative as I wanted it to be but not everything can be as creative as you think it should be. Our granddaughter turned two last week and this is her present from her Mimi and Bapa.  Along with a few other things.  (:

While wandering at my Dad's today these bright leaves caught my eye.  I love the sunlight and shadows.   More beauty from the lake coming tomorrow.

This is one of my favorite pieces at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.  Below is an explanation of what this beautiful piece is made of as well as a close up.  In the background is my most favorite piece at MIA.  Chuck Close's "Frank".  Love that painting.  If I see nothing but this I am a happy, happy person.

This is one of the things I find myself drawn to photograph.  Wood.   Maybe it is because I grew up with a father and a grandfather who were carpenters.  We never seemed to live in a "completed" house ever during my childhood.  There always seemed to be some kind of remodeling project going on.  And once the project was done we moved to a different house and a new project.  But there was always the smell of new wood.  And that is one of the best smells to be around.   Life was good.  Life is good.  Remember the simple things.

Today was an awesome day of adventures.  A short walk along Lake Bde Maka Ska (which is Dakota for white bank lake) is where I found these lake rocks.  There's not a bit of ice left on the lake so you could see the bottom clearly. The wind was so crazy I could hardly keep my camera steady.  But I did capture the colors as well as the ripples in the water. Our adventure today also took us to lunch at Pizza Luce.  And a quick trip to Minneapolis Institute of Art.  Both are always favorite things to do.