Kelly Miller

um, how rude. »
a day at the circus
Published
by
Val
on 04.22.08
in Days Go By
. Tags: circus, event, fun, photos.

Last Thursday, the 17th, the circus was in town! It’s been a long time since I was at a circus, I think I went when I was really little, probably to a Barnum Bailey, but this one was a Kelly Miller.

The day started, for us, with the putting up of the tent. We were supposed to meet friends for that so we headed on down and ended up about a half an hour early, but there were already a good number of viewers there. We watched the beginning stages of the circus tent going up and saw some of the animals before our friends arrived.

Elijah Picture Time Putting up the tent Putting up the tent

Of course, they all arrived armed with breakfast so the kids all joined together on a blanket and stuffed themselves silly. But after a little while, the circus men asked us to come inside the tent and the group of people on that side of the tent that was going up went inside while the others had to watch from outside. So we stood inside for a few minutes and watched them finish. An elephant helped with this part.

Elephant Breakfast while watching the tent getting put up Putting up the tent Putting up the tent

After that, it was back home for a while as the first show wasn’t until 4:30pm. Most of the afternoon was hurried and confused but eventually we made it back down there and Elijah got to ride himself a pony before the show.

But then we went in the tent and were unable to find our friends. They didn’t arrive for several minutes yet and by that time, it was hard enough to find a spot for their group of three adults, six kids, and a baby, let alone the two of us, so we stayed where we were. We were on the bottom bleacher, near the opening and so they would have been good seats if it weren’t for the “preferred seating.” This seating was much closer and surrounded the whole ring and to make matters worse they were in those plastic lawn chairs so they were actually sitting higher than we were on the front row. But, of course, it was already hard to find seating so I didn’t think we had much choice. But because of this, there were several acts that not only Elijah couldn’t see well if at all, but neither could I. It’s clear in the photos I did take.

That may have been one of the reasons that Elijah’s typical “okay, seen it, done it, now let’s do something else” attitude took over. He got cotton candy from the start and ate most of that and then wanted to either run off or dance to the music in the aisle. Most of my time was spent trying to keep him in line. He was also making me quite angry as every time the men with the sparkling, light-up toys would come by, he would throw an absolute fit. He wanted one so bad but I had already gotten him the pony ride, the cotton candy, and peanuts that I wasn’t about to get him everything his little heart desired, as much as I would like to. Turned out, too, that those stupid things were $10 and I got another fit later outside. We did, however, ride the elephant, the most expensive thing of the evening - this only for the photo and the memory, like riding that camel in Dec ‘06. :)

But anyway, the show was pretty good, though I wish I could have enjoyed it more. Here are some photos from that, not many came out at all:

Acrobats Hoop twirler Acrobats Acrobats Tiger Trainer Elephant

My favorites, of course, the elephants and the tigers. I thought the elephants, when they would sit on their rumps, were absolutely hilarious.

So there you have it. I would like to attend the Moolah Shiners annual circus but I know that Steve won’t be able to go with me and I’m not ready to brave another one alone so soon. Not to mention I think that I already have plans that weekend. Maybe next year!!