The Circus came to town...

Jerry loves to surprise us. He's sweet that way. He loves to make any outing even more special by making it a surprise in some fashion. So last week, Jerry calls me from work and says we were going somewhere on Thursday night but he wasn't telling where we were going.  I LOVE surprises, so I don't like asking a whole bunch of questions other than what time and what are we wearing. So I went along with it. Mikey was going to have to miss basketball practice, but Jerry got an extra ticket so he could bring his friend, Zachary, as an added bonus so he was happy.  Jerry kept the kids in suspense all the way to the event as they kept guessing as to where we were going..
 

Christian guessed it was either a Dodger/Angel baseball game.
Daniel guessed it was a  movie
Mikey guessed somekind of concert
and
Zachary said that if it ended up being a Justin Bieber concert he was going to scream!!

Hahahaha...that was funny!

Well low and behold we get to Staples Center and

 we were all surprised to see that the Circus had come town.. 

The kids got super excited and to hear the "Wows" as they walked in was

 enough indication that it was a great surprise.

We haven't been to the circus I believe since Christian was maybe 4 or 5 years old. 

Mikey wasn't even born yet, so this was his first real show.

I had honestly forgotten how fun the circus was, and we were not disappointed.

It truly was all about putting on a show. There's a story, lights, music, tons of performers, animals

and of course the clowns.  They've also added a dimension of variety with a group of

 incredible martial artists.

They did a great job in transitioning between each performance. They would set up for the floor sets by having you watch these incredible aerial acts above in between. This one in particular was amazing as these ladies did acrobats as they hung inside and out of these transparent bulbs.

 

  Christian mentioned that there was no amount of money he could be paid to do some of these crazy acts. I think I have to agree with him here.

I overheard someone say that the motorcycle tightrope lunatic artists, was a family from Mexico. How cool!

 

 I loved the tigers, but we quickly realized just how dangerous this job is. 

Those cats were feisty that night and they were one too many close calls for that ring leader. 

(Personal note:  I will be honest in that I am conflicted about these performances when it comes to animal cruelty. Its exciting to watch but I couldn't help but wonder if they were reacting to fear or to true training. I can only pray that these animals are treated properly.)

  

The elephants were adorable!

 

One of my favorite acts is always the trapeze artists. I don't have a picture because they're constantly moving through the air, but the training involved for must be undeniably grueling. I love knowing that many of these acts come from long lines of families who have grown up performing in the circus. What a tradition to follow.

The final act was one with tiny little motorcycles riding around in this metal globe. It was amazing to see how they could get up to 8 of them in at one time and not hit each other. 

 

 I took a short video because it was just too cool! 

Take a look!

The kids had a good time, it was super entertaining, and we all had a great night. 

Thank you again to my hubby for the nice surprise!

Thank you Ringling Bros, Barnum & Bailey for stopping by LA!

From my corner to yours, Until next time...