Elephants, in East Texas?!!??

Yep! They came with the circus, but got stuck in a storm. We did not go to the circus in East Tawakoni, but Grandma had read that the Elephants would be lifting the big top and being fed for all to watch. Well, a big storm got them off schedule and make parking a night mare. We didn't wake up at the crack of dawn, but got out of the house by 8am and went to see what there was to see. Not much. But we had packed a picnic breakfast of pigs in blankets and lemonade so we made the best of it and went to the park where Lea could climb, run and swing. We ate our picnic breakfast and headed back to he Elephants. They were out! Out in the rain. We stood and watched them dig up mud and throw it on each other for a while and then headed home.


But leave it to a two year old to put things in perspective. We had told Lea the night before that we would go see the animals... or aminals as she says. And when we ventured out on the wet stormy morning we tried to not to get her hopes up, because we didn't know if there would actually be elephants. But you can't dampen a 2 year olds spirits! We got on the road and Lea said "There are cows, they are aminals!" Sure enough, even if we hadn't seen any elephants at all, we would have seen cows, sheep, birds and squirrels. Thanks to Lea I was reminded that, even though they are not exotic, they are animals and fun to watch just the same!



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Then the next weekend, April 5 Dan and I took Lea to the Shriner Circus at Reunion Arena. It was a blast. I would say a much better bargain than the Ringling Bros.

They had trapeze artists and an Elepahant that rolled on a barrel and skipped to Elvis music. They had a Human cannon ball and funny clowns. One that had a little dog in an elephant costume, like a stuffed animal that took off like a winded toy and surprised and delighted me. I was rolling with laughter every time that cute little dog/elephant took off. We had a great time for much less cost.

Before the circus and at intermission they had elephant rides, pony rides and bounce houses. Lea chose the bounce house (to her parents delight since it was $4 cheaper than the elephant rides).

She had a blast bouncing. There was a slide that I thought she was afraid to go up, but once I got where I could watch her try to walk up the little rock climbing like wall I realized she was sliding because of her socks. I felt so bad, but once she got he socks off she was a sliding little giggle box!




Of course if you ask Lea her favorite part, it was the elephant. Lea kept asking when the elephants were coming back. Thank goodness they kept bringing out the elephants for the kids to ride. Because that was all Lea was interested in." When are the elephants coming back?"
So with her obsession with elephants I thought she would enjoy standing on the platform the performing elephant stood on. I wanted to take her picture...


Well as you can see, she didn't like that idea. It was too high. Apparently hurling yourself down an inflated slide three times as high is vastly different than standing on corrugated metal platforms built to hold a 3 ton animal.

But we got down and had a good time for the rest of the show. Of course there could have been more elephants, but then I think that's Lea's opinion of everything. "How was breakfast?" "Oh, there could have been more elephants!" But at least we got two weekends full of playful performing pachyderms!