Le Grande Cirque

7 or 8 months ago, Dave bought tickets for our whole family to go and see a troupe of Chinese Acrobats preform. They do an act similar to Cirque de Soliel and it sounded really fun and exciting! After anticipating it for so many months, last night was finally the big event!

The performance was held at the Air Force Academy. We thought we'd try and get a better parking spot by going on campus (where you need a special clearance badge to get on) rather than waiting in the very looooooong line of cars to get into the regular parking. Hmm...didn't really work out that way! We were running a bit late already, so we argued a bit and then parked in a lot that I thought was closer than it really was. Apparently, Dave knew how far away we were but didn't want to argue too much with a pregnant woman...he'd rather see her hike 5 billion miles up hill. :) It was pretty darn windy and cold, but the kids were all super excited and that excitement gave them the motivation and energy to hike such a long way. I was grumpy about it, of course...and not mentally/emotionally prepared to walk (mostly up-hill) such a long distance. About 10 minutes into the hike, Scarlett turned to me and with bright eyes asked "will there be real live bats?" She was a bit disappointed as I tried to explain to her that bats had nothing to do with acrobats.

We finally made it to the auditorium just as it was supposed to begin, but there were so many people still coming in that they didn't start right away. We had a nice row 6 seats off to a side and Elijah and Sebastian sat behind us. It worked out perfectly that Brighton could walk around and was not able to escape our row.

The actual show was pretty good...very dramatic and exciting to watch with the usual cool tricks like 5 billion people on a bicycle, a guy balancing on a ladder who balanced a couple of girls on his shoulders, contortionists who sat on their own heads and stood on their own shoulders, plate spinners, guys who jumped and tumbled through hoops, etc. In between acts, there was a "funny guy" who pulled people from the audience and did entertaining and funny things...Haven especially really liked him. I think everyone's favorite act was right after intermission when they had the stage completely dark with black lights shining at it. There were performers dressed in glow in the dark clothes who did neat tricks, but mostly all the performers were dressed in black and you couldn't see their bodies...just the ribbon they were twirling or the table they were spinning or whatever. It was pretty cool.

My favorite thing about the evening was hearing the kids spontaneous reactions to what they were watching. The boys, who were sitting behind me, kept getting louder and louder as their excitement grew. Sebastian kept saying things like "spectacular" or "amazing" and Elijah kept saying either "rad" or "that's so cool!" It was sweet to watch Haven clap during parts she really liked...even though no one else was clapping at all. Scarlett, who was sitting next to me, would look over at me with a big smile when she saw something she liked. There was one part where ladies came out in costumes that looked like they had flowy wings and she said to me "those must be the bats!" :) Fiona leaned forward and watched everything pretty intently and mostly helped Brighton with his snacks ...and by "helping" I think that meant she got some snackage too. :)

The show lasted about 2 hours and, at it's completion, it was 2 1/2 hours past Brighton, Scarlett and Haven's bedtime! Scarlett was VERY tired...she almost fell asleep at the end and there was no way she was going to be able to walk all the way back to the car. Once we got outside, Sebastian sweetly offered to carry her. He tried for a few minutes, but his coat was very poofy and slippery and he hasn't figured out the hip carry thing yet, so it was pretty hard for him and not comfy for Scarlett. I offered to carry her and mentioned I had a nice little bump for her to sit on. She liked that idea. :) I carried her for a while, with Sebastian offering over and over again to carry her so I could have a break. He is a sweet son. :) I needed a break after awhile and tried to teach him the hip carry...but being an 11 year old boy, he doesn't really have hips...and again with the puffy, slippery coat...so it didn't really work out again, but even just the one or two minutes he carried her gave me the break I needed to be able to carry her again. (Dave was carrying Brighton.) The wind was even colder than when we had arrived and everyone was sooooo tired! After we got down a big hill, I needed another break from carrying Scarlett so Sebastian tried to create a "bump" for her by having the diaper bag hang from his neck and have her sort of sit on the diaper bag at his front. That lasted about another 2 minutes. Then I tried to coax her into walking a bit and told her we were almost to the car!! She kept saying "no we're not...I can't see it!" and was just too tired to walk. Then I told her "pretend you're a little pioneer girl and we're walking to Salt Lake!" She was not very thrilled about that, either so I scooped her up again and we all finally made it back to the car.

It was a really fun, family experience and I'm very glad we went. I have to admit, though, that it wasn't really that much more exciting than watching it on t.v....so while I'm glad we shared this experience as a family and my kids got to go, I probably won't be that excited to do it again. :)