Ringling Bros Circus

We are a few clowns short of a circus, around here. So we piled in our clown car, or Nissan Rogue, and we were off to join the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Seriously, nothing short of amazing. Our niece, Ashley, went with us too, and I don’t know who enjoyed it more, the 3 year old, the 16 year old, or the adults…
Yes, I bought a giant bag of cotton candy right off the bat. What? We also snagged some popcorn to munch on while we enjoyed the show. Just like any family outing, the food and beverage prices are a little steep. Next time I will bring some goldfish crackers and save us the $8 for a box of popcorn… At least the cotton candy came with a hat!

We arrived early so we could check out the elephants hanging out outside:

This is what happens when Mom turns her back:The two kiddos were totally messing with each other. It was adorable. They were making their elephant trumpeting noise as they were kicking up dirt and chasing each other around the momma. Free pre-show entertainment!

We didn’t waste any time hitting up the souvenir shop:
A light up dragon sword for the boy, and a cute fluffy white tiger for our niece, Ashley. How fitting… Those are some happy circus-lovin’ faces!

Once the show started, it was down to business

Acrobats, horses, kung fu masters…

More elephants! I know. I just can’t help myself. They’re so dang cute! Look at how they hold the tails with their trunks. They melt this momma’s cold cold heart. There were riders on horses that were flipping all around the horses as the horses are circling the ring super fast. Even jumping on a moving horse. Crazyness! Motorcycles on a high wire with acrobats spinning and flipping on ropes attached to the bike. Bananas! And then these beauties:

5 lions. 4 tigers. 1 trainer.

Awesome, right?!

      
We watched Kung Fu guys bend and break metal, jump through a ring of swords, and then a ring of swords on fire! FIRE! Then there were the acrobats flipping and jumping and doing all kinds of crazy stuff you shouldn’t try at home. Amazing!

And then, … wait for it… MORE ELEPHANTS!

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAL! I know you can’t contain your excitement either. It’s ok to squeal.

OH! And then these guys!

They brought down the house. Riding motorcycles inside a metal cage of death. SPOILER ALERT: Their suits glowed in the dark. These guys oozed coolness.

Did I mention this year’s theme?

Dragons! YEAH! A green fire breathing dragon!

Needless to say, we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, despite our ages. We all had a different favorite event. The lions and tigers were definitely my favorite. The trainer got a kiss from the biggest lion. Adorable! We put this on our Summer To Do list early on, and I’m so glad that we did. This will definitely be a summertime tradition in our house!

I must say that this was the perfect age to introduce Will to a show like this. He’s pretty good at sitting through movies, even in a movie theater, but a show is different. I don’t think it would’ve been as enjoyable last year when he was 2. 3 is definitely the golden circus-going age. There were some younger kids around us that just weren’t quite getting it, and were making their parents crazy trying to get them to sit still… That’s not fun for anyone…

A big THANK YOU to Ringling for hooking us up with great seats!