We had a really fun day yesterday! A small traveling circus was in Caledonia. There was an article about it in the local paper last weekend and it said that you can come watch the elephants put up the circus tent in the morning. We thought that sounded like fun! So at 8 am yesterday, we packed up the girls and watched the tent go up. It was really neat! It's the only circus in North America that still uses elephants to put up the tent. Wow! It was so fun and exciting that we decided to attend the circus performance later in the afternoon. So we went home; Jim went to work and Lena had a nice nap, and then we headed back up for the show. We got ringside seats, and since it's such a small circus, that meant that the ring was practically in our laps! It was the first time at the circus for both of the girls.
I took LOTS of pictures yesterday, and even though it seems like a lot, this is only a fraction of them!
Eva happy and dressed appropriately to go watch an elephant!
They have three female elephants. They also have two camels and five tigers.
The camels.
Lena was excited. She didn't have a shirt with an elephant on it, but she wore her "Junior Zookeeper" shirt that she got at the Fort Wayne Zoo.
The tent all laid out and ready to go up.
The machine that drives the stakes into the ground.
Putting up the entrance tent.
Halfway up.
Entrance tent done.
It was fun to watch.
Although Lena knows the word "elephant" and uses it whenever we see one on tv or in books, whenever an elephant is associated with a circus, she calls it "Dumbo." So all of these elephants were Dumbo today!
Eva slept through the tent raising.
This circus is operated by a great-nephew of the Ringling Brothers.
Putting up the edges of the big top.
There was quite a crowd watching! We think there must have been some kind of summer program for kids at the school the circus was near.
The elephant (whose name was Lisa) is in the tent and getting ready.
My pictures aren't great since it was so dark inside the tent. The elephant is on the right. She is pulling that little Caterpillar thing which puts the poles up.
Almost done. We had to leave for her to put the rest of it up.
Here it is all done, when we went back for the show.
Lena got to ride a pony!
She loved it! (All that practice on the Penny Pony at Meijer has paid off!)
When the ride was over, Lena was so sad she just burst into tears. I went over to pick her up to leave, but the guy doing the ride got to her first and put her right back on the pony! He let her ride again for free. :) He's pointing to her because she had a sticker in her hand and she wouldn't let go of it to hold on to the saddlehorn. He thought that was really funny. So we spent a lot of time yelling at her to hold on!
Here is a short video of her riding on the pony.
Then it was time for the show. These are the ringside seats. So close!
Daddy and Lena so excited for the show to start!
Daddy and Eva. Eva actually stayed awake through the whole thing and many times appeared to be watching the action in the ring.
The clowns.
The tigers. There were five of them.
Sitting up on stools.
All laying down.
Tiger with laser eyes! This looks fake, but it's real! You know how humans get red-eye in pictures? Apparently tigers get green-eye! He looks possessed! It looks like he was lunging after the trainer, but he was just hopping on his hind legs. It was neat!
One tiger hopping over another. I think the tigers were my favorite part.
Lena was entranced.
The camels.
One dog pushing another in a stroller.
The Human Fire Volcano. I didn't get a pic of the fire volcano, but I thought this one looked pretty neat.
Lena's favorite part: Dumbo! She actually cried though a good part of the elephant act because she wanted to ride one so badly.
They did neat tricks.
We were sitting so close that I actually had to zoom the camera out to take pics of the elephants.
They all laid down. Lena said, "Night-night, Dumbo!"
Lena and the ringmaster.
So we let Lena ride the elephant. She did such a good job on the pony that we thought she could handle it. I had to go with her, of course. I didn't give it much thought beforehand, but once we got on, I was like, "What was I thinking!" It was a lot scarier than I had imagined. The elephant (named Tracy to everyone but Lena) swayed from side to side as she walked and there wasn't much to hold on to! I had one hand on the skinny rail to my left and my other arm was hooked around Lena's waist. Lena, aka The Fearless One, absolutely loved it. Again she burst into tears when the ride was over, but these people weren't phased by it so we didn't get to go again.
We had so much fun yesterday! We can't wait to go again some other time. If you hear that the Kelly Miller Circus is coming to your town, I highly recommend that you go!
