So our plan for the 4th had been to head to the park here in town, eat some hot dogs, lay on a blanket and watch the fireworks. But on the evening of the 3rd we saw a commercial on TV for the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus in Tucson running from the 3rd to the 6th. Bill and I both looked at each other and said "Hmm, how about that?" So I looked up tickets online and found the cheap seats and that's what we decided to do on the afternoon of the 4th. We know it's not like we hopped a plane to Hawaii or something, but it was a rather spontaneous action for our sometimes overly-planned lives. We hoped Drew would enjoy it and started talking up the elephants and tigers.
So late Friday morning we headed up to Tucson for the family's first circus. Bill and I determined it had probably been over 15 years since either of us had been to a circus. Before we headed to the Convention Center we stopped at In & Out Burger for a quick lunch. I mention this because Drew refused to go to the bathroom at In & Out Burger, saying he wanted to go potty at the circus. At this point, he hadn't gone for close to 2 hours. So we get to the circus and head straight for the restrooms. We knew if he didn't go that he'd want to go as soon as the circus started. And again, Drew refuses to go potty for Daddy or Mommy (twice each). We tried explaining that we couldn't go see the circus if he didn't go potty but this ultimatum didn't seem to bother him much. He started screaming "I need go back to car! I no see circus!" Um...okay. What do you do when your child doesn't care about the threats you're making? The joys of potty training...
After about 15 minutes Bill finally convinced Drew to go and we were on our way. We spent a few minutes checking out the pre-show all-access floor activities (an elephant painting, clowns, jugglers, an aerialist, etc.). I think Drew was a little bit in awe.
After finding our seats Bill thought he and Drew would go get some traditional Circus snacks. When they returned with popcorn and a drink they came in from the row behind us and it upset Drew greatly that he could not stay up there in those seats. For about the last 10 minutes before the circus started he was inconsolable over the fact that "I want sit up there!" You never know what's going to set off a toddler's tantrum. We eventually plied him with popcorn and the start of the show.
Drew really enjoyed the dogs running through the obstacle course, the horses and their daring riders, the motorcycles driving in the cage (1st pic), the tigers (2nd pic) and elephants (3rd pic). He kept saying tigers go night night while they were rolling over on the ground. And we started waving bye bye to the acts after a few acts, so the last picture is of waving to the elephants I think. The clown's antics and the aerialists were sort of lost on him.
At the intermission Daddy & Drew went to get Drew's first experience with cotton candy. After a little hesitation, he realized the pure sugar was quite tasty! The cotton candy also came with this silly hat that Drew enjoys hiding inside of. Pictures are from a game of peekaboo during our ride home.
Overall, I'd say Drew probably gave the circus a B or B+. He is still talking about the tigers napping and the elephants, but he repeated more than once during the show that "It's time go to my house," so not everything captured his attention. But it was a fun afternoon.
Pictures and the recap of our fireworks-watching coming separately...as well as posts of Drew's swimming lessons in the big pool and some random funny things that have come out of his mouth recently.
