The Kids' First Time Seeing Cirque!

Ron and I have loved seeing Cirque du Soleil ever since our dating days in Southern California.  We saw them several times in Las Vegas at their permanent venues and also under the "big top" in Southern California.  Since we have lived in Washington, we have been lucky enough to see them perform in Redmond several times.  The last few times that we have gone, Ron has commented multiple times on how much Lia would love seeing this amazing performing group.  When I found out that Cirque was coming back to town this past October to perform their show, Alegria, I asked Ron if he wanted to take Lia with us.  Much to my surprise, he suggested that we buy tickets for all three of our older kids to come with us!  So, almost $400 later (gulp!), I purchased five tickets for the second weekend in February and informed Ron that he had to keep it a secret until we could officially "gift" these tickets to our children on a special occasion.  Since they were already getting two trips as a fun gift for Christmas, I decided to hold off on letting them unwrap the tickets until Logan's birthday.  So, two days before we were to see the show, Logan and his siblings opened up their tickets last week after he had finished opening up his birthday gifts.  Logan and Ella were pretty clueless, but Lia immediately got excited when she saw the tickets inside the envelope.  Once we explained what this gift was to Logan and Ella, they all got really excited!

Two days later, we dropped Emmett off at my parent's house (which is conveniently located in a neighboring town) and headed off to Redmond to the big top that was up in all her glory.  We enjoyed wandering around the gift shop inside the amazingly huge tent before finding our seats before the show began.  We then enjoyed one of the best Cirque shows that Ron and I have ever seen.  Alegria was full of amazing costumes, death defying acts, and humorous clowns.  It was so fun to watch every act and to share it with our children.  Once again, Ella sat next to me and was absolutely entranced from beginning to end.  She is such a fun person to enjoy a live show with at my side!  When it was all over and we were walking back to our car, Lia said, "I loved every minute of it!"  and I couldn't agree more! 

The family picture we had taken of us on the red carpet with the large tent all around us!

A close up of the Hartland fam.

The three kids next to an Alegria sign.

The awesome Cirque tent with a stunning blue sky behind her.

Ella asked for me to take this picture of herself inside a "frame" while waiting to head into the tent.

The awesome tower inside the gift shop area of the tent complete with framed pictures of various characters from the show.

The kids standing in front of another photo background before finding our seats.

Ron and the kids waiting for the show to begin.

I decided to just sit back and enjoy this show instead of taking a ton of pictures while being stuck behind my camera.  As a result, I only took pictures of two of the many amazing acts we saw.  Here is a picture of the incredibly talented trapeze couple that performed their entire number from some ropes.

And the amazing hula hoop act.

The entire cast waving to the crowd at the end of the performance.

The beautiful tent all lit up against the night sky after the performance was over.

Another shot of the stunning tent from our car in the parking lot.  Oh, how I heart Cirque du Soleil.