WI Farm Trip - Day 3 - CIRCUS WORLD+

Prepare for a long, picture intensive, post.
Goal: Leave for Circus World by 9am.  Actual: 9:30  Not too bad, considering 4 adults, 4 little kids, 2 medium kids, and a teenager, had to get ready, make lunches, and wait for Dave and Art to go pick up the Bronco so everyone could go.

After driving for about an hour, we arrive! In Baraboo, WI:  http://circusworld.wisconsinhistory.org/.  We quickly walked to the BIG TOP to see the main circus performance, complete with jugglers, a balance expert, dog show, acrobatics, clowns, and then finally ELEPHANTS!  I loved it.  Zach was enjoying it, but also a big overwhelmed.  Wyatt's favorite part was the clapping after the acts; he was so excited to clap!  After the show, you could pay $5 to ride an elephant.  Since I was thrown up on through an elephant's trunk while riding one at age 8, I decided to pass.  Zach was too scared.  Sam, Emily, and Kate got a ride though:

Here are Emily, Sam, and Kate riding the elephant.  It was a short ride, just one lap around the ring I think.  The elephant stopped at one point to urinate about 10 gallons...yowzers!

Counts Fam "rides" the elephant

Now it's lunch time, but first a quick visit to a horse train car that had pictures from back in the day when Ringling Bros & Barnum & Bailey took trains to their destinations.

Kriztine, Zach, Shayna, Kate, Art, Wyatt, Dave, Steph, Sam, Emily

We went outside and sat on some large rocks by the river for lunch.  Dave graciously went to the car to get all the lunch.  Our favorite parts of lunch:  1) Zach growling at Kriztine with his "scary face" and hands, attempting to intimidate her into getting of the "good" rock.  2) Yelling "I'm MAD" when we would not allow him to get on the rock that Emily was on, then later, when she got up, and Sam unsuccessfully attempted to get on the recently vacated rock, yelled "Now I'm REALLY MAD".  We giggled and giggled, which btw, did not help things.  Then back into the park.  First stop, the circus museum, specifically the kid friendly part with a "tight rope" and unicycle.

Zach on the tight rope

Sam on the tightrope w/ Kate waiting in line, then Shayna w/ Kate  Wyatt

My three boys, Zachary, Wyatt, and Art (wearing Wy's hat) on the stationary unicycle

Then back outside to play on the playground for a bit, which was probably our kids favorite part so far.  A ride on the carousel seemed like a needed experience.  It was a super fast one, and Zach was pretty nervous the whole time since I had repeatedly implored him to HOLD ON TIGHT because I was riding this time instead of standing by him.

Zachary, Art, Wyatt on the carousel

Shayna riding

Steph &; Jess, Kriztine, Emily, Sam

Next, we hustled over to the Kid's Interactive Circus - BEST THING EVER (perhaps I'm only saying that b/c our kids were so so cute - imho)  It was HOT inside the bldg w/ the kid's circus.  The female ringmaster came out, said a few things, and then asked for kid volunteers.  Emily, Kate, Sam, & Zach got picked.  Since they were all walking over, Wyatt decided he'd better go too, though he was technically probably too young.  Each kid got outfitted with their costumes.

Wyatt as cutest tiger ever!

First act was a magician w/ an older kid, then time to bring on the animals.  Tigers went first.  Wyatt, Emily, and Sam were chosen to be tigers.  The tigers were marched in to music (look folks, their first trick - walking on their hind legs!) and lined up.

Sam, Wyatt, Emily marching in as tigers

Here the ringmaster had them get on all fours, then lie down

This is where things get SO SO cute (again, IMHO).  It's good that Emily was there to help out Wyatt (she's on Wy's right, and Sam is on Wy's left), because he was not really sure what was going on.  When she had them lie down and roll over, Wyatt rolled the wrong way, which the ringmaster made some comment about.  He was clearly the smallest out there by a bunch.  Then she had them go to sleep.  At this point it's WAY past Wyatt's nap time. All the tigers put their heads down to sleep.  Then she asked them all to stand up and get into line.  They all did but Wyatt.  He just laid there.  And laid there.  I was a bit afraid he'd fallen asleep.  I was on the verge of getting him, when the ringmaster walked over, picked him up, and plopped him back into line, to laughter and a round of applause.  It was so cute - as though it was planned.  Then time for some tiger tricks.  The ringmaster held up a hula hoop and asked all the tigers to jump through it.  Most of them dove onto the mat on the other side of the hoop.  When she got to Wyatt, she said that the littlest tiger of all had a special treat for them.  He would jump through the hoop while she held it aloft.  So there she was, holding the hoop above her head, and Wyatt hesitated, hesitated, then finally ran, again to laughter and applause.  Quite the showman w/out meaning to be!

First Sam dives through, then Wyatt, who hesitates, takes off, and slowly steps through. Check out his foot - he points it at the very end as though saying "check out my performance". Funny kid

Wyatt & Sam

At that point I was crying from laughing so hard.  So cute!  Next up Zach as an elephant.
After marching in, Zach sits on the far left of the stage, next to the ringmaster. They do some elephant tricks

Zach following the ringmaster - since she only has one hand in the air, he does too

Zachary next to the ringmaster, about to perform

Next she put down a jump rope and said the elephants were going to cross the tightrope. She had one kid do it backwards, one do it hopping on one foot, and then she finally got to Zach. First she asks if he's strong, then gets him to flex for the audience. Then says he's going to walk across holding another elephant (kid), Zach looks at that kid, and then takes off down the rope. She brings him back and has him carry a stuffed elephant. Cute!


Zachary's Elephant tightrope performance

Zachary the elephant standing on the tightrope

I loved loved loved the whole thing.  I wish I had taped every part of it, it was all so cute.  Then they had a recessional with all the kids, still dressed up as their animals (Kate was a horse, but I didn't get a picture of her that turned out ok)

Have to look closely, but you can see Zach, the first elephant, and Wyatt the tiger

A rockin' good time!  Next up, the tiger show.  So lame.  Would have been better if they killed the music and let the majesty of the tigers serve as only entertainment.  Beautiful tigers (angry of course), one of them white.  Just a SHORT (<10min) performance. 

After that we were hot hot hot, so we all got a snow cone to cool down. Everything else at the park was pretty expensive ($5 face painting etc), but luckily the snow cones were cheap ($1)! A welcome relief.

Here is Emily w/ a discolored tongue from her blue snow cone

After that we slowly headed out of the park.  We wanted to make a quick stop inside the stagecoach & clown museum, but first, we ran into some wild animals that were thankfully caged

Emily, Kriztine, Kate, Steph, Sam, Zach, Wyatt

Pipe organs and old stagecoaches from the early days

Last stop: make your own clown face from felt pieces

Everyone was exhausted, kids and adults.  We slowly trudged back to the cars, Zach nearly asleep in the stroller and Wyatt nearly asleep in DaU's arms.  Zach got a 2nd wind when he saw Sam climbing the big rocks again and had to join him.  2nd wind did not last long though:

Zachary asleep in the car after a long day

Both boys fell asleep in the car and stayed asleep after we got back to the house.  We parked in the shade and let them keep sleeping.  Crazy thing, but the day is not even over.  We are still headed to a horse show/competition where all 3 girls will be competing in various races. We ordered pizza and watched races from the front row for a few hours before heading back to the campers for bed.  The Barrett family, post competition, came home and unloaded the horses around midnight.  I barely woke up enough to hear them!

Long, great, day!