"Ka-prise! We are headed to the circus!"

When Katie was 3 years old she said surprise "kaprise". Well, Matt "kaprised" us with tickets to Opening Night at the circus!

Not just ANY old circus...but the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus - the greatest show on Earth!

Matt dropped me off at the curb to go pick up the tickets while he went to park and some picketers were on the corner. They called me a bad name... and then said I was an elephant murderer and told me to go get myself a coloring book. I'm not really sure what the 3 things they said to me have in common - but I kept thinking that maybe I didn't hear them correctly. Maybe they said, "Don't fall in that hole! You'll love the elephants! Buy your kids coloring books." Yes...I'm sure that is what they meant to say. Really - I don't know what the story is with the coloring books. But we enjoyed our first circus as a family.

When I was 9 and my sister was 6 we went to the circus in Abilene. If you paid $2 extra you got to RIDE the elephants. I rode one. My sister was too scared. I was actually VERY scared when I got on one. They had a bucket-type seat where 4 people could sit. I held on so tightly. I probably had not thought about this event from my childhood for almost 20 years. But it was fun and funny to tell my kids. I've ridden an elephant.