Reunion and 4th of July

The Valantine family reunion went off without a hitch. I was a lot of fun, my favorite being the talent show. One of Jason's little cousins sang a song from Tangled while dressed up as Rapunzel. Addie started crying during the song because she wanted to go see her. After she was done singing, I took Addie over and introduced her to "Rapunzel". Addie was enraptured with her and spent a good part of the night sitting by her and staring. Cami and I also participated in the talent show. Cami went up first and said, "I am so strong I can lift someone more than twice my age." I then I came up to the front and hopped up on her back and she carried me around. It got good laughs and we had fun.

Addie and Uncle Eric watching the parade. These two sure have a good time together! Addie has so many awesome aunts and uncles!

Cami, Addie and Megann battling for candy.

There should be a rule against throwing hard candy at a parade. I wasn't even in the front and a piece of butterscotch candy nailed me hard on the nose. This candy wasn't just thrown, it was pitched. For crying out loud, this is a family event complete with little kids! The candy broke into several pieces and I ate them all. Take that, nose-breaking candy.


This small-town parade even had the missionaries in it. They walked through and shook people's hands. Awesome.


Every year the Richfield Independence Day festivities include catching a fish with your bare hands. They set up large shallow pools (made with hay bales and tarps) and fill them with fish. Each pool has a different age range just to make it more fair. At the sound of a shot, all the participating kids jump into the pools and grab at the fish. Each kid is allowed only one fish and they get to keep it. This year, Cami and Caitie both caught a fish but then threw them back after the picture was taken. This event is about a 4-minute frenzy with kids and fish flopping around everywhere. The best is seeing tons of kids walking around the fair the rest of the day with their fish hanging on sticks. Yay for America!