Ringling Brother's Circus

I LOVE the circus! We went a few years ago when Brandon was just a baby and this is the first summer we have been able to go again. It is just so much fun! There is such an excitement in the air at the circus. There are acrobats and dancers and clowns and performers and gymnasts. There is so much to look at and enjoy. It really is "The Greatest Show on Earth"!

A split. She is seriously doing a split on a tight rope. Incredible.

This was Paul's favorite part. There were two guys going in and out and around these rotating circles self propelled by the performers. They literally did flips and jumped rope while continuing to move around. And of course, they made it look so easy. 

More fun performers. 

The tiger show.

The acrobats are always my favorite. It is amazing how they can spin around and pull themselves up and down on a rope. I love it!

That ball of fire is a person! I'm not even joking. They put him on a catapult. Lit him on fire and then flung him across the arena. And then doused him in fire extinguishers! It was CRAZY!

I loved the elephants! They were so cute. It was fun to see them try and catch up with each other to lock their trunk around the tail of the elephant in front of them.

I just hope they aren't as mean to them as they are in the movie "Water For Elephants". Surely there are stricter regulations on those types of things now a days right?

And look who happened to be sitting RIGHT behind us! Okay, so I knew they were coming to the circus. I'm the one that told her we were going and she said she wanted to bring her family too. I told her what section we were in, in hopes that they would be able to get kind of close to us. She got tickets and they were randomly placed RIGHT behind us. It was so fun. Then I ran into another friend in the bathrooms at the end of the show. 

If you are wondering where Carter is, he stayed home with a sitter. I knew there was just no way he would have been able to last the 2 hour and 15 minute long show without wanting to try and crawl around and get squirmy and fussy. So at the last minute (okay the night before, but that's last minute for me), I called up a girl that Paul use to teach Seminary to (5 years ago) who happen to be home from college for the summer. She was available and agreed to come watch Carter. It was his first babysitting experience and while she said he had a bit of a hard time for a little while, that he did pretty well over all!  So hopefully this is a good sign that I can start leaving him with the other kids a bit more when I have a sitter.