A Little Slice of Heaven

Today we are at my husband's sister's lakeside house in North Carolina. This is the view of her amazing backyard. It can be seen in all its splendor in every room of her house that faces the lake, through floor-to ceiling windows. Is this a little slice of Heaven, or what?

My husband's family home is on a beautiful lake in Upstate NY, and having grown up in that setting, it has always been his dream to have a house on the lake. His little sister and her extremely cute family are living his dream! I have decided that we're going to have to make this trip to NC at least once a year from now on (now that we're empty nesters and spend most of our time crisscrossing the country to visit our boys and other members of our far-flung family), to soak up not only the glorious location in which my sister-in-law lives, but to enjoy the creature comforts provided by my sister-in-law and her husband, who are the proverbial host and hostess with the mostest. They are happiest when they are sharing their home with family, so we'll be more than happy to come and stay with them whenever we can swing it. (We're only thinking of them, of course.)

This sister-in-law was the most adorable, precocious, affectionate little girl, just shy of five years old, when I first started going out with her brother; that seems like yesterday, and now--incredibly--the youngest of her five children is four. Hard to believe. My sister-in-law is still the most adorable and affectionate person, and she looks about fifteen years old, even though her oldest son is now a high school freshman. I just love her to pieces, and if anyone deserves this little slice of Heaven she calls home, it's she.