Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Well...at least tigers that is.

I saw a Groupon for the circus and decided to snag them because I knew Owen would love it. I was also excited, as I had never been to a circus before. We got there fairly early to make sure we had good seats, but really, I don't think we had to worry about that too much. The McKay events center at UVU is pretty small, and there were a lot of seat options when we got there. We actually ended up choosing seats that were back a bit so we'd have a good view of the areal shows.

I should mention that right after we arrived my camera battery died, so I had to use my iPhone to take all the pictures. Trying to take good pictures, in the dark, zoomed in from far away was not easy. So please excuse the quality.

The whole time I was there I kept thinking of Water for Elephants. Gratefully, they seemed to be rather humane and kind with their animals. But still makes you wonder about the life of a carnie! When we walked into the arena, they were doing pony, camel, and elephant rides. It was 10 bucks a pop for the elephant, but we figured, how often do you get the chance to ride an elephant?! I went on with Owen so he wouldn't be scared. Ok, ok...I went because I wanted to ride the elephant too! ;) It was hilarious though because before we went on, I asked Owen, "Do you want to ride the elephant?!" He said, "I want to ride the horsie!" Ha ha! The ride was pretty cool. It was a bumpy ride and you could feel the elephant's haunches move as it lumbered around. Very cool.

Getting on the elephant:

 Riding around:

Side note about the elephants: One of them relieved himself during intermission. A guy was cleaning it up and I was thinking what a miserable job that would be. A good two minutes later the smell from the urine had wafted through half of the arena to our seats and hit us like a ton of bricks. It was sick, and totally crazy to me that we could smell it so strongly from so far away. That is definitely not a job I would want!

Owen wanted to ride the camel too, but they wouldn't let adults ride, and I wasn't confident he wouldn't cry, so we passed.

Owen giving a funny face while chowing on popcorn (basically what amounted to his dinner) before the show:

The singing ringmaster with his dancing ladies:

After the ringmaster came out, the show started with the tigers. They really are beautiful animals. Owen was mesmerized with the act. And it was so cute to watch him throughout the show. He would put his popcorn down and clap enthusiastically. A few times he would even let out some loud whoops and squeals. It was darling.

This is right after a tiger jumped through the ring of fire:

Some other acts we saw...
Trapeze artists:

Contortionist:

Animal trainer:

Aerial something or others:

Tightrope performers:

BMX bike trickster:

We also saw clowns (so lame), magic acts, motorcyclist, jugglers, and some cool tricks done on skates on top of this small table.
This was during the intermission. It was a looooong intermission (about 30 minutes).

We left shortly after the second act started. The show started almost 30 minutes late (with an original 7:30 PM start time) and after the long intermission, we knew we wouldn't get out of there until close to 11 PM. Owen was actually doing just fine and was really interested in it all and sad when we dragged him away. But to be honest, Miles and I were exhausted, and I was mostly concerned about Elsie. The music was SO loud and she was acting kind of flustered. She wouldn't fall asleep and I think she was pretty overstimulated. So we bailed. I was kind of sad about it because there was supposed to be a bear act as well. If Elsie hadn't been there I think we would have stuck it out. Either way, it was still a lot of fun and I'm glad we went. The next day Owen kept talking about the circus and riding the elephant. He kept asking if we could go back, and I had to remind him that the circus had left and moved on to another town. I think he had a good time.