We had such a rock solid family day today.
Full of lots o’ fun, but one, specific outing that spearheaded our quality time—and it was all the more exciting because it wasn’t overly planned out. It just came together happily, all easy-breezy style.
And it makes me soooo happy when I can see these smiling faces because of togetherness shenanigans.
Basically, Chica came home from school on Thursday with a coupon for a free pass (with adult ticket purchase) to a circus that was in town for the weekend.
And since we have some really precious memories of attending a traveling circus twice when the kiddos were tiny (once when Little Man wasn’t even born!), we were all over making it happen again, San Antonio style.
See below for the adorable walk down memory lane of our previous circus excursions:
Now. The differences between our DFW circus and this one here:
Back in DFW, the circus would literally come to town and you’d know because they would begin erecting the big-top tent. I mean, talk about EXCITING. Plus, it was in a great location, right down the road from us, off the highway, by all of our main shopping haunts. There was something sooooo, magical about attending the circus in that tent, with peanut shells and hay all over the dirt ground, in a smaller, more intimate environment. Exactly the experience you want. Sort of like the combo of a fair and a circus.
Now…this go ‘round, the circus was operating out of an existing stadium in the area, close to downtown. So you definitely lose a little bit of the intimate, classic circus vibe—BUT (and this is a major caveat in South Texas!), that means you’re entirely indoors for all of your pre-show and actual showtime activity, which is MAJOR in the heinous heat.
Other than the venue differences, the vibe was very much the same. LOTS of fascinating individual acts within the show, LOTS of overpriced concession food, glowing souvenirs and prizes, and LOTS of concerns (as a family who luuuuurvs wildlife and wildlife conservation shows) about the treatment of any involved animals. I mean, we love, LOVE seeing them—and, yes, we let the kiddos take a vastly overpriced but insanely memorable ride on an elephant—but we hope and pray those precious animals are treated with gentle, loving care. And, honestly, we would all sort of prefer a circus that no longer utilizes animals and just includes human performers, as there are so many cool acts to enjoy.
In fact, the hubby had the kiddos write down an adorable list of all the things they hoped to see on our way there, and we managed to see everything on their list—with the exception of a ring fire, that’s probably a hazard any way you look at it, amiright?
So, now…a plethora of pics!
This is the point, after waking down the ramp into the arena full of (expensive) pre-show activities, when Little Man clutched his head and exclaimed: Oh my gosh! My eyeballs are about to pop out of my head! Sooooo stinking adorable. :)
Elephants are HANDS DOWN Chicklet’s favorite animal (though, alas, her very favorite are African elephants, but it’s far more common to see Asian elephants in zoos, etc., just the ones here). So we were particularly interested in watching these beautiful creatures and their handlers carefully to try and see if they were being handled with loving care.
And look at this gaggle of kiddos:
Naturally, we’d already spent a gazillion dollars before the show even began, ha, but we were all in at this point. ;)
Then, finally, back to the stadium for the actual show.
This act was a bit terrifying…the classic shooting a man out of a canon contraption!
Chicklet couldn’t even bear to look, ha.
And there he is, flying through the air!
The jugglers were actually wildly impressive, and Little Man was pretty riveted.
And all three kiddos were amazed by the tight rope act.
In all, it was just the perfect amount of crazy circus time, and our wallets were bone dry by the time we left to enjoy a happy family lunch at one of our favorite outdoor spots.
Naturally, we’d already spent a gazillion dollars before the show even began, ha, but we were all in at this point. ;)
Then, finally, back to the stadium for the actual show.
This act was a bit terrifying…the classic shooting a man out of a canon contraption!
Chicklet couldn’t even bear to look, ha.
And there he is, flying through the air!
The jugglers were actually wildly impressive, and Little Man was pretty riveted.
And all three kiddos were amazed by the tight rope act.
In all, it was just the perfect amount of crazy circus time, and our wallets were bone dry by the time we left to enjoy a happy family lunch at one of our favorite outdoor spots.
Love these sweet smiles…
By the time we made it home, the hubby and I were pretty tired and sure we could happily let the kiddos lounge upstairs all afternoon. But a bit later, we even indulged them in some swim time. I mean, talk about spoiled kiddos! ;)
It really was such a solid day of family time—and honestly, so rare for us to have a major outing like this, in our post-pandemic world.
In fact, the kiddos are still so unaccustomed to being out a ton (unless we’re out of town and they know we’re going to go on excursions) that they requested a solid pajama day for tomorrow, and we had to commit to just streaming our church service, ha.
So you can still see the effects of the new school year on their tired little bodies—along with their deep-rooted homebody tendencies, tehe.
But it really was a perfect day to shake up our routine, and I’m so glad we went for it, because I love making these happy family memories.
Happy Saturday, peeps.
Over and out.
No comments:
Post a Comment