The second weekend of August, in addition to being near my birthday, also usually means it's time for the Gurnee Days festival. And while we're not really big on the rides in the park and the fair food (remember, we sometimes go a full week eating naught bit Six Flags dinners), we never ever miss the parade. Sort of.
See, this year was Max's first chance to walk with our Cub Scout Pack. We decided rather than drop off a parent with both other boys, we'd park the van near the end of the route, walk to the Pack as a family and then just do the parade together. Max had just met many of the other kids in his Tiger den the day before at a picnic. He was super excited to wear his uniform for the first time, and Jack tends to enjoy the responsibility of being in the parade, though he's also content to watch and try to harvest candy.
Long story short, we never did find the Pack. We ended up walking the equivalent of the length of the parade route three or four times over. That afternoon Kristie was taking the boys to Fulton for a week — the only reason she didn't leave earlier in the day was so we could do the parade. And so we ended the morning (early afternoon, by that point) with not a lot of happiness all around. But not before I got these pictures.
