The Greatest Show on Earth

Mary is our current favorite because she hooked us up with 4 tickets to see the Barnum and Baily Circus yesterday! It was my first circus ever, and of course the boys' first circus too, and it met every one of our hopes and dreams of what a circus would be. Everything was very well done - they all had amazing talent, it was all very polished and professional, things and animals were well taken care of, and there were tons of interesting things everywhere to watch and point at. Our seats were on the back row of the main level, which I thought was perfect - high enough to have a great view of everything (even the high stuff,) and not at all too far away. And the back row was nice, because the boys could stand if they wanted and not be in anyone's way, not to mention quick entry, exit, and access to food stands and bathrooms. I'll apologize in advance for all the lousy pictures - the circus isn't the easiest thing to photograph (with all its extreme lighting and lots of movement,) but it was worth taking pictures anyway to let the boys keep the memory years from now.

Seth's favorite thing was the elephants, who made several appearances. I guess they were one of my favorites too, because I took a lot of pictures of them. Pretty amazing.



Jonathan's favorite was the clowns and all the scary stuff up high - like the tight wire guys on unicycles and chairs, and the clown and girl up on incredibly high and wobbly poles doing tricks, and the guys doing tricks inside the big spining circle thing you can see in the foreground of the elephant pictures.

These guys were incredible - walking with baskets on their feet so they couldn't even see the wire, walking on the other one who was laying down on his back on the wire! Pretty amazing. And there was an amazing Asian contortionist/balance group, where they stack all on top of each other in the most unfathomable ways, a couple of human cannon balls, horses and zebras doing tricks, a hilarious jumping dog routine - these dogs could do flips, ride scooters, dance on their hind legs, you name it. And of course the beautiful tigers. He got them to do some incredible things.



Add to all of this the great live music throughout the whole show, big song and dance numbers, funny clowns, great acrobatic routines, and a whole lot of 4 and 2 year old wonder (not to mention us 27 year olds,) and it was a fabulous adventure.

John was saying how wild it is that we are at the point in life where we are doing things we remember our parents doing with us. He said it just felt so much like his dad to be "taking the kids to the circus." Fun, fun times. Thanks Mary!