The Circus... *Sigh*

Maybe there was too much built up anticipation for this years circus.  With it being the first year in the new Ford Center, I just had imagined the circus being bigger and better than ever!  I was sooo let down!  Let me explain.

The performances were actually better than I was expecting.  Some of them were lame, and some scared me to watch (I didn't want to see anyone fall to their death, and I just knew that was going to happen with some of the crazy performances.)  There was a really neat "jumping" team.  They did all kinds of flips and tricks and gymnastics with jump ropes.  They were really entertaining!  I liked the hula hoop girl and the ice skaters.  All that was new and different.  Overall, the performances were enjoyable.

The part I look forward to the most is getting to hold or be next to a wild animal.  There is no where else you can go and hold a baby tiger cub, or have a monkey stand on your head.  When we arrived an hour early for animal pictures, I was so let down.  They had the same minature horse the kids got their pics with last year, and they had little pony rides.  They also had camel and elephant rides.  They replaced the cute cuddly animal this year with a yellow python.  It was cool, I guess, but it's hard to "ohh" and "awww" over a snake.  At Robert's Stadium they keep the tigers out so you can see them, but the animals don't have anywhere to stay at the Ford Center so they don't bring them out until they are needed for the show (which is a bit disappointing because I like getting to see the tigers up close).

Maybe it's just me, but I felt like the ticket prices really jumped up this year!  General admission was $19 (which is the 2nd level in the new stadium).  You could sit at the first level for $21, so that's where we bought our tickets.  Allie was free, but Hayden was $21, along with me and Kevin.  That was a bit much.... It wouldn't have been so bad if you didn't have to pay $5 per person to ride the ponies or the elephants (which cost us another $20).  Cotton candy was $4 for a little bag and of course we had to buy that too.

Like I said, maybe I just built it up too much, but I was really let down.  Enough so that we've talked about not going next year.... Maybe next year I'll wait till people post some pictures on facebook, and if there are photo ops with baby animals then maybe I will change my mind.  Or, if they moved it back to Robert's Stadium, I'd go again. 


Enough complaining, here are just a couple pictures we snapped this year.