Susie's Little Piece of Paradise

We went to my sister-in-law Susie's house for a barbecue yesterday. She and her husband Doug have a really nice home with a beautiful park-like yard. Just this summer they added a multi-level deck down by their pool.


These pictures are of the lower deck and pool, the upper deck, and the side yard with the pond:


This picture is taken from the lower deck by the pool looking up at the back of the house:


This picture is taken from just outside the kitchen door on the back porch:




Susie!



Here are the birthday girls!
Jill's birthday is today and Ellie's birthday is next week.




Ellie (my daughter, in red) and Jillian (Susie's daughter):


Rudy (Jill's husband):


Mikael (Susie's youngest):


Donald and his son Christian:


My sister-in-law Ann, Donald, and Susie:


Susie on her back porch:


Jackie (seated), (and then counter-clockwise) Ellie, my sister Diane, Susie, and myself:



HANDS:

Here is Jackie's pinky finger after she fell and 'fixed' it herself. It still looks swollen.


I made her put her pinkies side-by-side so you can see the difference in size:


Here is Jackie and her sad pinky finger, and here is Donald's 'claw' as he calls it. Donald practically cut off his hand with a table saw a few years ago. He has had a few surgeries, but the nerves never really knit back together and he doesn't have much use of that hand, he can't open it completely anymore either, but he does very well with his claw, and he even went back to work in construction for years after.


Donald and Jackie:


And here is Susie's bruised and battered hand:


How did it get this way? Well, her son-in-law Rudy was teasing her as usual, so she punched him in the arm. Rudy doesn't have a mark on him and he laughed and he insists he didn't even feel it! Susie's not so lucky:





SNOUT:

And this is something Susie had sitting on her shelf that I really did not like very much at all...




...until she showed me this!


Isn't it adorable?!

I had a great day there!