Casey and I are very alike in many ways, but the biggest thing we have in common is our love for FUN. We both love experiences and are all about being “down for whatever” (#dfw). I saw some random coupons for a Circus at a pharmacy in town and grabbed a few of them. The last time I attended the circus was in 2010! Robyn and I took Kye and LL when it came to town. Casey had never been to a circus and Kye and Britt only remembered when it came to town a couple years ago and we were able to drive up to it and sneak a peak at the elephants who were outside of the show 😉 I felt like we were due for another circus adventure!
This particular circus was called Circus Pages. I’d never heard of it. Their website seemed shady. And they were cash only. Plus it was at our fairgrounds, which I’ve never even been to. I felt pretty confident it’d be a fun time…or at least would result in some fun stories which Casey and I are also always up for 😉
The coupon deal was 2 free kids per 1 adult ticket and the adult ticket was $16. Not bad! Buttttt I’m glad I brought cash b/c the camel ride experience was $6 per kid. But I could I pass up that experience? Plus I did it with Kye back in 2010 and knew all the kids would LOVE it. I was actually kinda hoping Tess would be timid and not wanna do it so I could save the $6 haha. It also made Casey and I nervous b/c they didn’t allow adults to ride. So all of our kids were piled on one camel together! Cool Moms? No doubt!
Kye LOVED it!!! I’d say Carter loved it too but not as sure about the girls 😉
So yeah. I spent $16 on my ticket. Then another $18 on a camel ride. BUT the cotton candy was only $2! You can’t pass that up!!! We all shared one until the show started (totally helped me earn some “cool aunt” points too with Carter)
Everyone loves Aunt Casey!
So when we pulled up to the fairgrounds I was pretty surprised it was inside a building (what happened to circus tents?) and even more surprised how empty the place was. They had bleachers set up SUPER close to the area of the show. It was for sure the closest I’ve ever been at any sort of show like this. The pre-show warnings were also pretty epic. As in they legit said “if an animal escapes calmly gather your belongs and run as fast as you can while screaming.” It felt promising 😉
The lions and tigers were up first and they did have a HUGE gate thing up in front of us which was good. We felt super safe 😉
My main motivator for the circus was for Tess. She LOVES animals. I didn’t even THINK about there being any gymnastics involved in the show. But yall. Britt was adorable while watching these girls do their things. It’s been so awesome to see the passion Britt has for gymnastics. She truly LOVES it and said it was her very favorite part of the circus and that she wants to be just like those girls when she grows up. I told her she can work hard and be anything she wants! Including a circus gymnast 😉
The intermission couple was pretty great too. This man was the clown and also did juggling and fire tricks. He did burn himself during one of the fire tricks which was a little scary!
We quickly realized that Pages Circus was named for the Pages family. Everyone in the show was related and everyone did multiple things during the show. It was really pretty awesome! I kept thinking about the book (and movie!) Water For Elephants. I can’t personally imagine being in the circus life but they must all love it and it must be neat to always travel together with family and have all of those experiences. All their children were there too and it was a weeknight so we assumed they must homeschool on the road! We kept wondering how they are even still in business because there weren’t a lot of people in attendance and you have to assume running a circus is expensive? But they all did seem to really love what they do!
The clowns wife was a great hype woman 😉
I thought one of the coolest things were the gymnasts doing tricks on horseback. It freaked me out!!!
This little girl is 4 years old and was SO proud to be riding that camel! It was adorable!
Another crazy thing was the dirt bikes in the big ball cage. They had something similar in the last circus we attended. I just kept thinking about the first time they decided to try it? SO scary! Three guys all riding dirt bikes inside a small metal cage at the same time. And what’s crazier is that they were the same guys we saw doing other tricks and things during the show…so it’s not like they are professional dirt bike riders or anything! You can see a video of it here!
The circus ended with the elephants and oh my goodness Tess was in AWE of them. We all know Tess doesn’t have the biggest reactions but she gasped when they came out and said “Elephants!” in an excited voice and it totally melted my heart 🙂
This is Tess caught up with excitement 😉
She kept pointing and saying “elephant! elephant!”
The big kids weren’t as impressed with the elephants as they were their smell haha
Tess wanted to be in the show and touch all the animals!
Kye very much enjoyed it as well! It’s tricky having a kid his age and having a toddler (and it’ll be even trickier by the time Tab is a toddler!). I want to make sure to have experiences geared towards the toddler age as we always did so much for Kye and Britt at that age! I try to talk things through with Kye in advance and have started giving him the option of not attending things if he doesn’t want to. So far though, he’s been all about everything we’ve done!
And, yes, they suckered more money out of us for a picture with the elephant. I mean who could resist that?!?!
The elephant kinda freaked out (I think it’s b/c Casey is so tall and she was holding Carter up so he was at eye level with the elephant) and the trainers freaked out too. It was a moment haha! We switched up how we were standing so the elephant would be more calm. Totally worth the elephant poop mine field to get these pics!
Carter is SUCH a ham! Child is the definition of “all boy” and it’s no wonder Casey is so skinny she’s chasing around his energetic self all the time! He reminds me SO much of Britt at that age! Silly and loud and SO fun!!! It’s funny b/c as babies Tess was SO smiley and Carter was “Mr Serious” but now he’s the silly one and she’s the super serious one 😉
I love making memories with this crew!
I mean my kids and their hand holding. ADORABLE.
So thankful to have a bff who loves to go and do like I do! We make an awesome team and always make such amazing memories together, no matter what we’re up to 🙂
Kinda a side note but I was freaking out over being late to the circus. I struggled to find circus clothes for the kids to wear (duh they gotta be themed) and figured I’d put the girls in animal print. Since that is circus-like right? When we were trying to walk out the door I couldn’t find Tess’s animal print vest ANYWHERE. I ended up just grabbing a random jacket and leaving it but when I got home I found it…in one of the trashcans from around the house (Britt’s chore is emptying them into the big trash can and then putting them away once a week and she hadn’t done the putting away yet). So hilarious! I guess she wasn’t a fan of the vest!
I know not everyone is a fan of the circus. I know people talk all the time about the mistreatment of the animals etc. I know circuses are phasing out and I’m glad we got the chance to attend one together! Most likely by the time my kids have kids there won’t be circuses anymore at all so it’ll be fun to be able to share these pics and the experiences with my grandkids!
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