Running Away with the Circus

Friday night, Jody and I took Harper to the Barnum and Bailey Circus at the new BOK Center downtown. The building is beautiful, but they didn't plan for parking. We had to park about three blocks away. Not a big deal, Jody and I have walked further than that before. We were a little nervous, though. We were a little afraid we'd get back and the car wouldn't be there. No worries, though. It was there when we got back.

H on our way to the show:

We got there an hour early so we could get a decent parking space (ha!). We got inside quickly and walked around in awe for a bit. The place was very clean and bright. There were a lot of stations set up with cotton candy, popcorn, souvenir toys and stuffed animals. For two days, Harper had only asked for cotton candy, so we made sure he ate a good dinner, then we braced ourselves for stuffing him with spun sugar.

When we approached the kiosk to buy cotton candy, I caught sight of a teeny tiny stuffed animal that was $21. TWENTY ONE DOLLARS! This doll was about the size of Happy (the bear). Not a $21 animal. I was relieved that H only wanted the cotton candy. I order. 'That will be $12.' TWELVE DOLLARS?! FOR COTTON CANDY?! Oy. They hand us a huge bag of cotton candy, then she said, 'Oh, it comes with this hat.' Which we thought would be a waste, turns out, Harper loved it. He wore that hat most of the night. It was pretty funny. But everything was like that. If you ordered s'mores, you got a crown. If you ordered popcorn, you got some spinning thing that lights up. The downside was you can't get JUST popcorn or whatever, you had to get the souvenir. However, I decided that it's worth it. The show must cost a fortune to put on, and the tickets to the actual show were inexpensive. So if they want to charge $12 for cotton candy, fine. I didn't plan on getting anything more than that anyway.

We found our seats, but before we got settled in, we saw that people were allowed down on the floor where there were jugglers, an elephant, a man on stilts and a couple of clowns. We made our way down there, but there were a LOT of people and H didn't want to get up on Daddy's shoulders to see the elephant over the tops of people's heads. Too high, I guess. So we went over to the jugglers where there was a place on the floor to sit. We got to hang out for a few minutes, then it was time to find our seats, the show was about to start.

The show was starting and we stood up for the national anthem.




















Harper wore his hat for most of the show.





















During the pre-show, there was a lot going on. Elephants, clowns, motorcycles, dancers. But all H could focus on were three acrobats that were on our side of the arena. Very high up in the air. He sat there, staring at them, obviously nervous. When the pre-show was finally over, the ladder dropped and the acrobats started climbing down. Harper sighed and said, 'Now they can get down.' I couldn't get a picture of them, it wouldn't have turned out. It was too dark.

I think he enjoyed the part with the dogs chasing frisbees the most. He said he was going to teach Mona to do that. I figure I'll need to get another dog. I don't see Mona catching a frisbee anytime soon.

Just before the halfway point, Harper said his tummy hurt and I had noticed his eyes getting awfully itchy. I mean, the show didn't start until 7:30, which is bedtime. It was already almost 8:30. He had been a super good boy and we had seen a lot. So we all put on our jackets and by the time we got to the top of the stairs, it was intermission. We just beat the crowd out and we made the long walk to the car.

Harper was really sleepy on the way back to Daddy's. When we got there, I carried him upstairs, with his little head resting on my shoulder. Got him inside, threw the hat on the couch, put on jammies, brushed his teeth and washed his face. He asked for his hat... I'm pretty sure it stayed on the couch overnight. Although, I wouldn't be surprised if he slept with it. Daddy made chocolate milk and got settled in the rocking chair. I handed over our boy, gave him lots of kisses and headed home.

Maybe next year we'll make it through an entire show. And we can get there even earlier so we can participate in more of the pre-show.

It was a fun night for all of us. I can't wait to do it again.

*Jody has more pictures. I'll post some of those when I get his copies.