Keepataw Days/Labor Day

We decided to cap off our busy, yet relaxing, weekend by spending the day with Jeff's family. We met in Lemont to watch the Keepataw Days parade. This was the first parade for the kids to watch. Although they've both been in a parade, they've never actually seen one. The parade started with a fire truck from each local station. Aubrey loved it...Tyler hated it. The sirens were way too loud for his liking. The parade lasted about 90 minutes and there was lots of candy to collect. Aubrey sat back in the beginning watching her cousins, Natalie and Caitlin, do all of the collecting before she began grabbing some herself. By the end, she seemed to be having a ton of fun. The parade lasted through Aubrey's nap time so we were a little nervous as to how she would be. Much to our surprise, she was doing great until we reached the car. Ugh.

After the parade, we headed back to Jinger and Gus' house for a cookout. The kids had a ball playing on their swing set. Tyler was able to swing for the first time in the Bumble Bee swing while Aubrey went up and down the slide over and over. She also played in the sandbox for quite a while making piles of sand and filling the buckets. Around 8pm, we decided the long day must end and it was time to head home. The kids were pooped and so were we! Aubrey crashed and burned on the ride home repeating "I want my bed" until she fell asleep and Tyler dozed off mid bottle. Once we got them to bed, each only woke once between 9pm and 7am. What a great night!