Circus!

Thanks to Kristine McCarty, Mikayla and I got the priviledge of going to the biggest circus of all-Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey at the Pond (I still call it that even though it's the Honda Center now). I had never been to the circus before, even though Mikayla argued that I had, and I enjoyed all of the death-defying acts that happened over the span of 2 hours. Kristine warned me that it was pretty ADD (very active and busy) and it didn't disappoint. We got there a little late and we walked past all of the toys so Mikayla's mind was on which toy she wanted during the whole first half. At Intermission, I finally let her go pick out a toy. I couldn't believe how expensive they were. The gifts started at $15 but I figured since I hadn't bought the tickets, I could afford a little dinner and something from the gift shop. Mikayla chose a glow in the dark sword and I got out the credit card (since I needed just a little cash for dinner). I then went to the snack bar and got us some nachos. They were PILED with chicken and cheese and I thought we would both be able to finish it but Mikayla's appetite suddenly disappeared once she acquired the new weapon. I brought the enormous nachos to our seats and then, as soon as I sat down, the lights went out again. Had I known I wouldn't be able to see what I was eating, I would have eaten out in the lobby. It was like eating blindfolded. I would have taken a picture of the nachos except that I couldn't even tell if they were in my lap or not. Miraculously, I was able to spear at least half of them with my fork before my stomach felt like it was going to burst. The pitch blackness also made it difficult to take pictures so here are some of the better ones. All in all, it was a great trip and we had a wonderful mother-daughter time together.

The elephants were pretty amazing. How do they get the poor things to do this?

The tigers were fun to watch, mainly because they all hated the trainer so much. There was one tiger in the ring who batted the trainer's wand and roared every time he came near. Not surprisingly, he was never called on to do a trick and he sat on his little bench the entire time, having attitude.

The acrobats were trying a 5 person pyramid. They attempted it twice but the little guy on the top kept falling. He hadn't attempted it yet in this picture.