Dressing Up as Rhinos and Knocking of Trays!

We went to the circus for the fourth year in a row. Grandma came too, and this year the kids LOVED it! Stanton was in awe the entire time with every act, and Noelle was in heaven with the unlimited supply of chicken fingers, popcorn, cookies and soda in the box. She also liked the funny clowns.
We went to Jeepers the other day because I get their e-mails with their "secret-discount passwords." So we walked in, armed with the codeword, "Liberty" (I whispered it to the cashier for extra effect) and we got unlimited rides for $1. It was a great time!
The jets are Noelle's favorite!
For those of you that don't know, I worked at Jeeper's for 3 years after high school! Aside from operating rides, letting kids talk me into huge prizes for barely any tickets, and cleaning up pee in the slides, I also got to dress up as Trish the Rhino! Trish the Rhino was a full on head to toe costume with a head so heavy you got whiplash if you moved your neck the wrong way. I made Lynnae take this picture of me so I could document the following experience for my kids to read someday and learn from my experience:
One year I had to be Trish the Rhino in the Boo at the Zoo Halloween parade! Everything went well until the very end when all of the little kids wanted to hug and squeeze Trish the Rhino. Then things took a turn for the worst. Maybe it was dehydration or clautrophobia, or maybe it was the fact that I'd just hoofed it around the zoo in the heat, donning a costume that weighed as much as an actual rhino, but whatever it was I got dizzy and was about to pass out. So I started running, thrashing my way through all of the kids, yelling for them to move, but underneath the costume head, I'm pretty sure I just sounded like a dying animal. It all happened so fast. I just remember I had a long way to run, and a lot of kids were following me. I know I pushed some kids out of my way. I know I jumped over some ropes, and I know I knocked over a trash can, but as I recall no children were trampled during my stampede. I'm fairly certain a couple were frightened though and possibly crying, but I'll tell you what, I bet there would've been a lot more tears if the Trish the Rhino would've keeled over from heat stroke before their very eyes. Luckily I made it back to the changing room and was able to rehydrate and shed my hooves and horn, never to dress up as Trish the Rhino again!!!!
We had a shoot out at Bass Pro Shop, after eating dinner at their fancy fish restaurant. We'd gotten a gift card there for our anniversary from a friend. Not realizing it was more like an extra-fancy Red Lobster and not a Long John Silvers, we brought the kids with us. They were a little noisy, but pretty good, until the very end when Noelle made a run for it. Robert got up to get her, and CRASH!!! He knocked over a tray of food with four plates on it that the waitor had set down right behind his chair. The food belonged to the table next us, but it landed on the people in a booth behind us. The waitor threw his arms in the air and said some words under his breath, and I had to pretend to whisper-discipline Noelle because every time Robert and I looked at each other I started cracking up, uncontrollably. Robert apologized, and the people were very nice, but we got out of there as fast as we could and went into Bass Pro Shop where the kids had their gun fight!
And my lucky hubby got to play with a baby tiger at work. They always bring in exotic animals to the studio to be on the show, so so far in his career he has gotten to pet and play with a lion, a tiger, a penguin and a kangaroo. Lucky him!