The Greatest Show on Earth!

So today is my mom’s birthday – HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM! And to celebrate we took her to the circus last night and it was *great!* By the way, I feel pretty confident in saying I have one of the best mom's in the world. She's great and I really love her... so happy that she's mine.

So this year’s theme is “Bello-bration” and apparently the clown/man, Bello, is a 7th generation circus performer… think about that guys, 7 generations! AND his daughter is planning on being in the circus (she’s a teenager) so she will be the 8th – crazy! I mean Barnum & Bailey is one of the oldest circuses, with this year being it’s 137th and if you average 20 years per generation that puts this family at 140! Makes me think about the book “Water for Elephants,” GREAT read by the way, and what it must have been like in the old days...

They had a ton of animals in the show this year… 10 elephants, 10 tigers (one’s name was Tasha and she was a *star!*), a ton of dogs including a great dane, and of course the performers were amazing, too! They had a lot of new stuff and I feel like a lot of Cirque de Soleil type acts, which of course are always impressive! Very funny show, too – all in all just so fun! I love the circus!

Beforehand we had gone to Pappa’s BBQ downtown to eat dinner and give Mom her gifts – we were pretty excited as we surprised her with probably the most expensive and rare book any of us have ever had our hands on – “A Girl and Five Brave Horses,” by Sonora Carver. If you’ve ever seen the movie “Wild Hearts Can’t be Broken,” a childhood favorite of Kendyl’s and mine, then you know the story… apparently Sonora Carver’s book has been out of print since the 1960's, thus there are very few available for purchase online which therefore makes them very expensive. But Mom wanted it as she fell in love with the story, movie, etc. so Dad, Kendyl and I strategized and Dad made it happen! So we gave her a bike rack (for her bike/saddle bags), the movie, and the book. She was so surprised! It was really cool – and *perfect* theme night as we were on our way to the circus!

In other news that I have been forgetting to blog about, I am training for a triathlon! So far so good... It’s been on my life goal list for awhile and with my birthday and upcoming stuff I decided no time like the present. Considering I can do all 3 things separately, I thought I should try and see how I would be at putting them together… This one is just a sprint, but it’s a 300 meter swim, 11 mile bike ride, and 3 mile run.

My hardest leg of the three will be the swim as although I’m a good swimmer, I’m not a good free-styler. With all of my many swim lessons, girl scout camps, water certifications, lifeguarding, etc. I’ve never been able to freestyle for long without sucking down a lung full of water! I do a lifeguard freestyle really well, but it is extra tiring to keep your head out of the water as your body is not in a supine position in the water, thus making it more difficult. Good news is that apparently at the actual event hardly anyone does real freestyle anyway as you’re in open water and have a million people around you, so should be fine for me I guess? Haha! So I’m busy training and trying to consolidate the activities and going one to the other… tonight is bike to run night, which sounds reasonable though they say your bike legs making the transition to your running legs can be a little interesting so we’ll see! I’m going to try and do a dry run Saturday or Sunday just to see how it goes as it’s not too far away! My biggest fears about it (which Kendyl said should be the last thing I’m worried about) are the transitions, so am trying to get more educated on these so I have a better idea about how all of this will work! So far though I think I’m really liking it!

Also got to see Ash and the boys tonight again, with Pam and Chandler, too. Ashley's mom had knee surgery this week so she's in town briefly to assist, so we had dinner and watched the boys play in the fountains. It was adorable and I hate that I don't get to see her/them very often. We also took the new camera so as soon as I figure out how to download the pictures I'll post some!

So glad it's Friday tomorrow!

Love,

Tasha xx