Alaska #3 - A Small-town 4th!

We've been home from Alaska so long I'm afraid the memories are starting to fade. This may be my final Alaska post since so many other wonderful things have happened this summer. I don't want to get too far behind. But I couldn't leave my Alaska posts without writing about Petersburg's small-town 4th of July. It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip!

Like all good celebrations, there was food. LOTS of food! Here's Ken eating some sort of fried pastry: I've never had funnel cake before...it was heavenly:

Then there were the games...FUN! Here's Levi participating in the herring toss. The goal is to get the herring into the ring. If you look closely, Levi's herring is pretty close:

My cousin Juliet as the Herring-Holder. I too, had this role of holding herring while waiting for Levi to toss:

After tossing herring Levi had to try watermelon spitting. He spit 4.7 feet:

After the herring toss and watermelon seed contest we found Ken back at the food. Yes the sign in the background does say "Deep fried oreos and candybars". I said "ewww..." but Ken still raves about them:

Then the kids had to lick some candy out of some real Alaskan shells:

I think I already mentioned the Bringhursts participated in a parade. We even won 3rd place in the neighborhood category:

More festivities - fishing for prizes:

Leah and Cousin Jeff shooting balloons:

Leah won 3rd place in a foot race and won $3:

Beckett and Levi were partners for the water balloon toss:

Then there was the money pile, where our children wildly dug for monetary treasures:

Grand total: Around $8 - not bad!

Many of my cousins participated in the log-roll contest. This is Tierney and Cami:

Our final adventure for the 4th was hiking through the muskeg to find the fireworks. Something about hiking in the dark in Alaska felt very adventurous (this is Ken and the kids with Preston and Autumn):

As we arrived at the fireworks, they were releasing the coolest paper lanterns. This picture doesn't do them justice.

The small-town 4th of July was super fun. A great way to gather us all together and to bring out our competitive nature - all in fun of course!