Fuel, Elephants and Cotton Candy

This past Saturday we took our family to the Circus. That's right - Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey - old school :). Jon and I hadn't been to the circus since we were like 12, so this was just as exciting for us as it was for our little one's.

We all got ready for the big event - Lexie even had a special bow to match her circus dress! We loaded up into the car and headed out for our big adventure. Jon noted that we needed gas, but passed the last gas station on Grand before getting on the highway stating, "We'll be okay until we get into the city". We talked about the Circus trying to paint a bright and vivid picture for our kids on what they would be seeing. Jon and I then got into a deep philosophical discussion about the Bible and God. We soon realized that we had passed our exit and the next exit was 26th Street (our exit was 7th Street). Jon got off the highway and back on and we were once again on our way.

Until we ran out of gas.

It was like 114 degrees on Saturday. It's summer in Arizona, you know...

Luckily, in front of us was an exit and as the car locks Jon put it into neutral and we coast down the off ramp. We steer to the right and the car comes to a rough stop. Jon hops out of the car and I into the drivers seat (very quickly). Jon begins pushing the car into the building on our right. We notice that there are a lot of cars and we see the most noticeable greyhound dog symbol on the building. We are at the Bus Depot! There just happen to be about 10 taxis lined up all along the front of the building. THANK GOD! Jon runs and gets into a taxi to make the travel to the nearest gas station (5 minutes away) to purchase fuel in a gas can. Alexandria was asleep and so I made the decision to keep the kids in the car while Jon was saving us. 15 minutes later, the kids were a sweaty mess, I'm a sweaty mess and I find myself fanning the kids with the map book Jon keeps in the car. Finally, he arrives and we are on our way.

We made it to the circus 25 minutes late. We actually paid the $10 parking fee to park in the lot across from the US Airways so that we could get to the action even sooner. Well, we didn't miss much - just the opening act that was clowns (from what I gather).

The "main" clown of the circus was HILARIOUS! Seriously, Jon and I were laughing so hard and the kids had so much fun! There was a baby elephant that danced and was the cutest thing ever. Even Lexie had fun - bounced on my lap the majority of the time until she fell asleep near the end. We paid $25.00 for 1 nacho, 1 hot dog, 2 sodas and $14 for a cotton candy. Can you say RIP OFF?

All in all - the kids first Circus experience was very memorable and we had a wonderful time. :)