The Fun Outdoors with Jillian (by Brad)

Below we have posted some pictures from our time outside enjoying the unseasonably warm weather. About 15 of the last 18 days have been dry and about 72°. Simply wonderful!

Here is a picture of our neighbors. They are here with their Mom and Dad from Michigan. He is an MD/PhD on a 6 month sabattical at Addenbrooks. Almost every day they come outside to play with Jillian, and sometimes will even watch her while Lauren finishes up dinner. Melanie is 13 and Danny is 11. They both love to read, and kick the soccer ball and their parents are really nice too. Their Mom told Lauren that they think of Jillian as a cousin. Most of all, Jillian loves their attention and getting to play with them.



Here Jillian is with Thomas the train, on loan to us from another nice neighbor. We had gone to Chili's for lunch that day with friends from church, and Jillian had been given a balloon. You would think we would branch out and go to a pub, but we feel so at home at Chili's. The tables look the same, the food is almost as good, and the decor is full of Texas chili cookoff signs!



Jillian here is playing just outside our front door with a couple of college balls. Just this week, we have taught her to smile on cue (though she only listens 10% of the time). So here it is, Jillian's camera smile! It is really funny to watch, because she starts with a blank expression, you ask her to smile, then she moves her lips a little bit, concentrating really hard to get them to go the right direction. Then, she remembers, and she crunches up her entire face into a toothy grin! We love it!



Yesterday, we biked to the Botanical Gardens of Cambridge. It was a dream come true for me. It was again really nice out, about 62° in the morning. We hooked up the bike trailer, and set off through the "fen" and across the river. We rode past the ducks and baby ducklings to the garden. Calling this place a garden is a bit like calling Texas Stadium a plot of grass. HUGE UNDERSTATMENT! It is absolutly enormous! It goes on and on, and has the most enormous old trees and shrubs, and all sorts of flowering plants. Below we captured a photo of Mommy and Baby enjoying the setting.





While at the garden, we came to a beautiful fountain with Jillian's favorite wild-life: ducks!