The Greatest Show on Earth!

I can remember going to the circus when I was a child but I don't remember very much about it...This show was AWESOME and Michael agreed with me! The performers went above and beyond to make sure everyone was having a good time...Smiles everywhere!

The Ringmaster

The Clowns...

The ponies were Sweet

Michael loved the dirtbikes in the cage...There were 7 of them in there!

Tigers were beautiful

Michael was in Awe of the aerialist

The Grand finale!

We will definitely be going back to see this...and I would recommend this show to everyone...it was called "Over the Top"...

The real reason for our trip to Corpus...

Was to watch the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, YEEHAW!!

My main reason for going to the WaterGarden was to check out the train for the Circus...

A couple months back I reserved tickets for Michael and I to go to the Circus, he has never been...and to see his excitement at going to the Circus made my day! We decided to go to the pre-show and check it out and we were NOT disappointed...We saw the Elephants, Tigers, Ponies, Horses, Dogs, Goats, and performers...up close and personal!

This Sweet heart was 42 yrs old...and I don't remember her name either, lol...but the keeper I talked to said she was a favorite among the crew and a good old girl...She is an Asian Elephant (small ears) and could live to 50 or 60 yrs...They used no chains or electric fence to keep them contained, just a wire and they knew they were to say in their area...I was amazed at how content they seemed...After working with horse for years I can pretty much tell when an animal is content and these Elephants were content...They had sand to play and roll in, branches to grab and break up and plenty of other Elephants for company and room to move around in...Much different then when I was a child when they were kept in chains and bored, rocking from one foot to the other...

After checking out the animals we went inside and on the Arena floor they had circus performers that we could meet and watch...I was amazed that they let all these people down on the Arena floor it was too sweet!

You could get autographs and photos with the clowns!

I love this clowns outfit and hair, lol....

The man on stilts was wonderful...

Michael enjoyed the jugglers!

One of the Elephants did some artwork, which they had a drawing for...

And here is my son eating popcorn and slurpy down an Icee....Sheesh!

He did not want to go down and get his photo taken with the clowns and performers, he did not want to meet any of them...All he wanted to do was sit, Sigh!! So I went down to meet and see everyone and everything and kept a close watch on Michael! (Party Pooper)

I remember going to the Big Circus when I was younger and never remember a pre-show, it was amazing!!

Now on to the Greatest Show on Earth....

This Snapshot...

Stayed up way to late last night as I knew I had the right photos for a template designed by Jen at Jencropable.com .

It's all your fault Jen that I did NOT get any sleep last night, lol...But I love the layout and thank you for the template, YaWn!!

Templated designed by Jen and Jencropable.com

Wordart designed by Anna Aspnes at Designer Digitals (Foto WordART No1)

Brushes designed by fei-fei's stuff at Oscraps (Different strokes)

Assorted Papers from all over, lol....

Painted Bunting

I interrupt our Corpus trip to bring photos that I took Saturday evening....

I have a mental list in my head of photos that I would like to take in my life time...and Saturday I can check one off my list, YEA!!

Friday evening I was outside and saw a Painted Bunting eating off the Sorghum plant and thought oh sweet but at the time it was too dark to attempt a photo...So Saturday evening I set outside with the Camera and tripod and guess who was back?

The Painted Bunting...and sheesh is he gorgeous!

Look at the colors on his back...Blue, Yellow, Green Red, Purple, Orange...

I am definitely planting Sorghum in the garden next year!!

The first birdbook that I ever owned has a picture of a Painted Bunting on the front cover and I was always awestruck by this bird. I even attempted a painting of my own, lol...In later years I had heard a story that the Indians told regarding this bird...When the Great Spirit gave all the birds of the worlds their colors this little bird was the last one. The Great Spirit decided to give him all the colors that were left on the color palate and that is why the Painted Bunting has so many different colors...I never honestly thought I would get a photo of one but as I always say..."Never say Never!"....

I was so excited and had to share....

A few minutes to burn...

After swimming and eating dinner at WhataBurger on the bay we had a few minutes to burn before the Main Event...I drove to the Corpus Christi WaterGarden, we had never been and it was pretty close to where we were going for the evening....You couldn't see the Water fountain from where we parked because of a huge grass embankment...Michael was NOT happy! As we had passed the place where we were going for the evening and he doesn't understand time and being way to early for something...So when I told him we were going somewhere to burn up some time and he saw this Huge Bison Statue on a grass embankment, he was really Not a happy camper....That was until he climbed to the top and Saw the HUGE Water fountain, lol....Then he was like WOW!!!

Awesome Mom!

My attempt at merging photos, lol....this is what wide angle lens are for!

Corpus Christi Watergarden

I was laughing as I knew this was going to happen...He just couldn't help but stick his hand in the water...

And once again the hand in the water....sigh!! It's inevitable!

But wait he's found something else that would be more fun.....



Chasing Seagulls and Pigeons...

Michael checking out the Longhorn Statue, lol...I told him if that had been a real one he would have got his head kicked in...OUCH!

Now off to the main event of the evening and the real purpose for our trip to Corpus.....YEEHAW!!

Corpus Christi or Bust!

Our little Mini-vacation (Adventure) was heading to Corpus Christi and spending 24 hrs there, Whew! We packed a lot into that 24 hrs too...

The first few hours were spent finding the parking garage, getting checked into the Hotel, taking photos of the view and Swimming!! Oh did I forget to mention that Michael just wanted to stay in the room and watch Cartoons!! NOT happening!!

View from the room! Not the view I was expecting but it was the one we got, sigh!! I still had fun with the camera, especially at night time with the big city lights!

They had an indoor/outdoor pool and Michael was enjoying himself!!

In the midst of taking photos of Michael swimming I noticed this really nice mural on the pool side wall, sweet!

Michael is getting better and better at swimming and I love it!

He makes me laugh! He does this fists in the air and yells "Yes!" Everytime he accomplishes something, lol...

And of course it wouldn't be a photo session without that Blasted tongue!

That was our first few hours in Corpus...The main event photos will be up in the next few days...(I hope)....Busy day Saturday as our great-niece is celebrating her 1st birthday! I hope y'all have a good weekend :o)