carnival

Earlier in the week, we drove by a local fireman's carnival being set up in a nearby town. The kids were instantly excited and asked all week if we could go. As luck turns out, the rainy weather gave us a break last night, and we were able to attend, and despite some soggy footing, had a marvelous time.

The kids of course rode all the rides, most of them more than once. The Ferris Wheel was their first choice -- smart, because it gave them a bird's eye view of the rest of the carnival so they could plan out which rides they wanted to do next. But despite the absolute blast they had on the rides, the favorite part of the evening for all of us was the circus acts:

Here's an 'air ballet' by one of the performers on the "Scottish Tight Rope". She had some pretty cool moves that made me dizzy just to look at.










Zoo Boy had been skeptical about taking time out from the rides to watch the show, but he quickly lost his doubtfulness and enjoyed the performances whole-heartedly. He just couldn't believe he was actually seeing some of these things -- at one point he exclaimed "It feels like I'm dreaming!"






The world's most talented juggler. I kid you not, this woman was AMAZING, and The Map Man and I just can't figure out what she's doing in a side-show act at a small-town carnival. Apparently she's won awards for her juggling and has been featured on ESPN. We were certainly blown away!







J got a kick out of the trampoline act -- 3 brothers (who won a gold medal at the the Circus Olympics in Great Britain last year -- who knew they even HAD such a thing?!?!) put on an entertaining sketch where one of them was dressed up as a clown that kept disrupting the trampoline act of the other two.

Amazingly good show, especially considering it was free. All we paid for was the kids' ride bracelets (and they more than got our money's worth out of those!). Oh, and a fried dough, which is now Zoo Boy's favorite food....