The Greatest Show on Earth

Josh and I took Kathryn to the greatest show on Earth Sunday afternoon aka Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus! It was an unbelievable show!!! We spent a mere fortune on food, souvenirs, more food, and more souvenirs but it was so worth it! The animals were beautiful and of course had great acts to show off. It did make me so sad for them though with the wips and I know they are probably not treated the way they should be. So I did feel very sorry for them, but I was so glad we got to see them. Kathryn is so in love with horses and they had beautiful horses running around and yes one of our $20 souvenirs was a stuffed white horse. We only have 3 stuffed horses here, so we really needed another one! The clowns, acrobats, and ringmaster were so cool too. They flip every which way, get shot out of cannons, swing hundreds of feet above the ground...it was incredible and that is seriously just their day job.

I was so intrigued by the circus people (are they called carnies?) that it brought up so many questions for me...
How in the world did they get started in the circus?
Do they constantly travel with the circus?
Do these people have families?
Are they drunk all the time? How else could you put up with that show 3 times a day, 6 days a week?
How much money do they make? Josh and I could probably get shot out of a cannon together once in a while for some good money.
They are seriously talented, so why the circus?

Kathryn loved the dancers and clowns and kept trying to dance like them. I hope she never tells us she is leaving home to join the circus! She has already asked several times when do we get to go back! I hope next year & I can't wait till Lauren can join us!