May all your days be circus days

When I was a child, my mom, my sister Colleen, and I along with my aunt and uncle went to a circus in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I can't remember if it was the Ringling Brothers (fun Iowa fact: The Ringlings lived in Iowa for a bit before getting their start in Wisconsin) or Barnum and Bailey ... or maybe those two American circus companies were already one at that point. But anyway, it was a long time ago and it was one of those great childhood memories. Everything seemed to be from a movie. It was magical. The night we went to the circus!

In February, I read in my hometown newspaper that a traveling circus was coming to Guttenberg while we were in Iowa. Immediately I emailed my mom and asked "can we take Olivia to the circus?" Her answer, "of course." It was very more fun after we found that Benny had never been to a circus. Never? Really.

Going to the circus in Guttenberg, we had low expectations. There were rumors circulated in town that an elephant would make an appearance in the high school gymnasium. No elephant was seen. But there were poodles (one of my favorite circus animals) and a pony.

We sat next to my grandpa and his wife and enjoyed the show. The gym was packed with children. I didn't even think that many kids lived in G-town anymore. We had great seats on the bleachers where we could see everything. Olivia went into Olivia the Observer mode, where she watched and listened without moving. This column that ran in The Guttenberg Press sums it up well.

And for the grand finale, there was foot-juggling, a lost art in the circus world, according to the MC.

Then a few days after we arrived in Maryland, we saw an advertisement for a circus that was coming to a town near us. Benny was out of town that week for work, but Olivia and I decided to go together. A mother-daughter day at the circus.

In this circus, there were nine tigers, three elephants, four camels, four horses, and a whole gang of dancing poodles. We got our photo taken with the poodles. Olivia begged me to also let her ride a horse, a camel and an elephant. I told her she had to be three years old before she could do that.

For the grand finale, they shot a guy out of a cannon. I think Olivia liked the foot-juggling more.