Cole Brothers Circus! The World's Largest Under the Big Top!

Surprisingly not as amazing as it sounds. "Under the Big Top" means everyone is under a tent. A small, enclosed space with stinky people and stinky animals. All the animals looked kind of sad. The people were interesting. And they had kids in the acts. Really? I don't think I would like my kids prancing with dogs or elephants, traveling the country. I'm sure Manny would love it. But maybe I don't think it's the best for him. And I thought the kids would be excitied to see the animals or the exciting acts. But they couldn't have cared less. Manny only cared about the people walking aound with food on their heads. "I need a popcorn! Cotton Candy! " And Marcel just wanted to eat anything he saw. We got Manny 1 ( or 2, who actually remembers) treat and then he saw the guys with the glow swords. "I really need a glow sword! Please! Please! Please!" I told him "Okay, but this is the only thing you get. No more anythings." He promised. I told Luis those dumb glow swords are probably worth a dollar. I am not paying more than $10 for it. (I think we should let our kids pick ONE thing. Period. Luis is of the mentality-if we're going to do something let's go all out. Let's do it all. I say we should never go anywhere if that's what we do. We are compromising.) Luis went to pay for it. And when he came back I asked how much it was. $12!!! What a rip off. (And it curently doesn't work anymore-7 days after we bought it. And Manny even tried to "save the batteries" by only using it every once in a while.) Later the man with the snow cones on his head came by. Manny turns to me, "Can you just return this? I REALLY want a snow cone." You're kidding, right? If I would've just held out a little longer about the glow sword....I had to tell him that sadly that's not how it works. I can't just retun it. Lots of crying followed.
Well, we saw some sad white tigers, a baby elephant playing with a little girl, some jumping dogs with another little girl, a "family" of Colombian tight rope walkers, a lady swinging by her hair, more ladies twirling/doing tricks on pieces of fabric hanging from the ceiling, and some clowns. Manny did say he liked the clowns. Success!
We might have even left at half time (if there is a half time). We couldn't quite hear what the ringmaster was saying ever so we just assumed it might be over (although not that many people were getting up to leave). And we weren't sad about it. We most likely won't be going to another circus. Ever. Unless the one from Madagascar comes to town.

List of things to blog about

I have been terrible at blogging, but I've been trying to write things down when they happen and I will "blog about them later" I always say. So here is the list. I'm blogging about them (kind of).  Most are about Manny

"Please bless Mama's dad to come alive."   (One of Manny's prayers)
Lion Witch and the Wardrobe  (I don't actually remember why I wrote this down. We read the book I guess, but no funny story comes to mind)
How to pray-"Put your arms out like this, give yourself a hug, close your eyes like you're not looking for someone to get you"     (Manny was trying to show Marcel how to pray. Marcel is now successful and folds his arms and closes his eyes. It is very cute)
Sent a balloon in the air to "make Heavenly Father happy"    (Cute that he was for serious)
"You're just like a lifeguard!" Because I am always saving Marcel's life  (True dat. Every day of his life)
"I probably don't need a life jacket now that I've had swim lessons." He's had 2 lessons that have included things like blowing bubbles and putting your head under the water (which he was hesitant to do)
"Please don't let the ants know it is a trap." (Another heartfelt prayer) "I'm nice! I'm really nice! Come here bugs" (He called to bugs as we were trying to catch them)  (We had to catch a bug to bring to class for Manny's homework.)

New Year's

Funny story. Lucila and David and Kahomey came to visit. Everyone had 3 days off so everyone said, "Let's take a roadtrip!" First suggestion-Miami (12 hours driving). I said no. New York City (9hrs driving)? No. Washington DC (5hrs driving)? Maybe. Actually I told them they could go anywhere, but I didn't really want to go. A short in days but long travel with kids didn't sound fun to me. They finally decided on Atlanta, Georgia so they could go to the aquarium. They all wanted to go together. We had just bought our van (which seats 8). They were convinced we would all fit (there were 9 of us). Luis kept saying, "4 people can totally fit in the back!" They all agreed they wouldn't complain, someone might even sit on someone else's lap, and someone (not me) would somehow deal with a ticket if we got one. I reluctantly agreed. We decided this at 8:30 at night and left at 2am the next morning (so the kids would be sleeping). I have a great talent for falling asleep. Maybe the hours upon hours of car travel I did as a kid with my family, but I really do think it is a talent. So I am in the back, with 3 other people. I am turned on my side so we can almost fit. (Just so you know, 4 people CANNOT fit in the back.) I tell myself, "Just go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep." And it works! I wake up and we are at a gas station. Not surprising. What's surprising is that this happens probably 3 more times. Atlanta is 6 hours away. Why do I keep waking up at gas stations? It's because someone's face is numb, someone's legs hurt, someone needs to walk around, someone needs to go to the bathroom, etc.  It takes us forever to get there, but we get there and it is amazing. Here are some photos.

 What we couldn't take pictures of was the dolphin show, which was really cool. It was a musical. Manny loved it. I also didn't get pictures of anyone touching anything because Manny was too afraid to. They had tons of places where you could touch the animals. We stayed until about 3pm when the aquarium started to get more busy. We went to a Peruvian restaurant. And then drove home. We started driving home and the driver kept falling asleep. We stopped at a gas station...and I got in the front seat and said I was good to drive. I drove straight home. The end