Friday evening we took Trey to see  Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Dragons  down at the U.S. Bank Arena. This was my first time in years attending a performance of “The Greatest Show On Earth,” but I’m sure it won’t be the last. Overall Trey really seemed to enjoy the circus, though I think he will like it even more when he has an attention span longer than the typical two-year-old.

Ringling Bros.

All-Access Preshow

We arrived nearly an hour before the show was set to start and spent time walking around the merchandise filled concourses and eventually found our way on the circus floor for the all-access preshow. Here families can participate in interactive experiences such as learning juggling and balancing skills, get performer autographs, see one of Ringling Bros. majestic Asian elephant’s paint a one-of-a-kind masterpiece and meet the Ringling Bros. Clowns.

Live Orchestra Setup

My favorite acts from the two hours or so of entertainment were definitely the Alexander Lacey, the Big Cats Trainer and Presenter, as well as the Torres Family, who  performs with 8 motorcycles in a 16-foot steel sphere, where speeds can reach up to 65 mph! I was also impressed to see that the entire performance is choreographed along with a live orchestra and not with music from a tape.

Big Cat Presentation

Motorcycle Globe Of Steel

I’m not sure why the show is called “Dragons” as there is very little to do with dragons. A large robotic dragon does peak its head out of the curtain just before intermission and it is sent flying around the circus floor at the end of the night, but that is the only real dragon aspects of the show. If I had to add any other complaints about the show it was that the ringmaster was often hard to hear, but that could just be due to our ancient arena’s poor acoustics. Even without fully  understanding  his introductions of the acts, it was easy to quickly decipher what was going to happen in each.

Unleashed Dragon

Typically the day before the circus opens up for performances, there is an animal walk from where the circus trains are parked to the arena. This year the train arrived in the middle of the night after being delayed on its route between tour stops. My wife remembers going to see the same event as a child and really wanted to take our son. Once we found out it was canceled for this year we thought of other ideas to get closer to the animals. Fortunately we had a nice bit of luck last night as we were driving home from the west side of town and spotted a few of the elephants being loaded on the train.

Circus Elephant

So Close

Walking By

Rail Cars

Three Elephants

Back Her In

This was very cool to see but I hope we can get the full animal parade next time the circus comes to town.

Despite the frigid temperatures over the weekend, the Kentucky-Ohio Polar Plunge went on as scheduled. This event benefits  the Special Olympics programs in both Kentucky and Ohio. Since the event became a joint fundraiser in 2005, the Plunge has raised more than $670,000 for programs on both sides of the Ohio River. This year they raised over $140,000!

As they’ve done many years in the past, a couple of Kim’s brothers participated in the plunge. This year they were part of the Frosted Fruit Loops team for Hamilton County Special Olympics. We went down to Joe’s Crab Shack to watch them jump into the pool of water that was actually frozen earlier in the morning. Brrrr.

Plunge Site

Keep It Classy

Another “Classy” Group

Ready To Jump

Frosted Fruit Loops

More Fruit Loops

My family and I hadn’t traveled together for an overnight stay since our trip to San Francisco in September and we needed a quick getaway. So we made plans to spend a full day this past weekend in Columbus with an overnight stay at the Westin downtown (booked on Priceline.com). Among the stops on our trip was the Fort Rapids Indoor Waterpark. Sure they have a onsite hotel that we could have stayed in, but after reading some nasty reviews of their  accommodations, we decided to stay elsewhere. Besides, even after paying the $21.95 per person for waterpark entry after 4pm and just under $80 for the Westin, we were still saving money compared to the cheapest package I could find on the Fort Rapids website.

Due to our busy day, we didn’t actually get to Fort Rapids until around 7pm and with a 9pm closing time we didn’t have a ton of time. However, I felt that our two hours there was enough for our group. My wife took our two-year-old to the kiddie korral children’s activity area and the rascal roundup 40-foot interactive play structure. I took my twelve-year-old brother-in-law through the cowboy creek lazy river and onto all four of their water slides two times each. It seemed that most of the crowd really thinned out during the duration of our visit.

This was my first visit to one of these large scale indoor waterparks, so I don’t have much to compare it to in that regard. The water was definitely highly chlorinated and therefore seemed extremely clean. We did encounter one of the water slides in the rascal roundup was closed, but other than that all the attractions seemed to be well maintained. The air temperature is warm and the water is a nice cool temperature. We had a good time and wouldn’t hesitate to go back again when in the area on a cold winter day.

Over the weekend we took Trey to the Behringer-Crawford  Museum  for their annual  Holiday Toy Trains display. I had never heard of this museum in Devou Park before reading about it on Family Friendly Cincinnati.

Permanent Train Display

Before we could make it upstairs to the temporary  Holiday  Toy Trains display we were fascinated with a model of old Covington complete with a few model trains of its own. There are a couple of portholes that you can see in the picture above, where children can climb into and get a look of the city from inside.

Trains

The first floor is dedicated to trains with a play area for kids and plenty of information and history for the older children and adults.

Street Car

The holiday toy trains are in a separate space on the third floor.  This display wasn’t as large as the one in the Cincinnati Museum Center, but this one was way more interactive. Trey spent a solid fifteen minutes running along the display case pressing various buttons to see what would happen inside the display.

Holiday Toy Trains

The second floor is full of information on the early automobile era. While the third floor contained all sorts of history on river transportation. And the very small fourth floor has information on the area’s aviation history. Throughout the museum there is all kinds of historical artifacts. I found this case filled with brewing history that was fun for me to look at for a few minutes.

Beer History

We easily could have spent even more time at the Behringer-Craword Museum than the hour and half we were there. There is so much to see that an entire afternoon could be easy to fill.

I’ve brought kimandedjr.com out of retirement today for a very import news announcement. Exciting times are ahead!

Yesterday I took Trey to the Rowe Woods branch of the Cincinnati Nature Center. A friend of mine had mentioned it to me numerous times as a good place for hiking and mentioned that his nephews loved it as well. Though we didn’t really get to hike on this visit, we still had a great time.

PlayScape

Most of our time was spent in the PlayScape, basically a children’s play area that is built to look and feel like a natural environment. Though the water features were already turned off for the year, Trey still enjoyed climbing up and down the rocks where waterfalls normally would be. We also spent a considerable amount of time in the digging pit. I would hide a stick in the gravel for Trey to dig up. We must have played this game well over a dozen times.

Trey Ready To Dig

Once he started to get tired we took a short walk along the new Discovery Trail to see the fish in Matt’s Pond as well as the Abner Hollow Cabin. The cabin doors were open so Trey was able to run around inside with a couple of other kids, though there really wasn’t much to see inside.

Abner Hollow Cabin

A couple of rocking chairs on the porch of the cabin provided a good resting spot. Trey was so excited to climb on each of the chairs, and by the time he made it in the last one I could tell he was ready for a nap. Thankfully we weren’t too far from the car, so I picked him up and carried him through the woods and back to the car.

Rocking and Roaring

I hope to return to the nature center on a future warm day or sometime next spring to see more of the over a dozen miles of hiking trails.

Trey has been busy this Halloween season, but that’s perfectly fine with him as he is figuring out more and more what Halloween is all about. We took him to Hyde Park Square this past Saturday for their annual event. I didn’t realize that there is a costume contest as part of it, so we will have to try harder next year. We attempted to dress him up as Bob the Builder, but he refused to wear the overalls and plaid shirt. He did keep the yellow construction hat as long as he was receiving candy. He quickly learned that trick-or-treating means a near endless supply of candy.

Bob the Builder

It’s perfectly okay if he doesn’t want to be Bob the Builder again tonight. My mother has purchased so many different costumes that he has enough for the rest of the week. She dressed him up in a skeleton sweatsuit for their weekly trip to the library on Monday. She also has a monster costume and a  rock-star  costume.

Skeleton

It doesn’t look like the weather is going to be very nice this evening, so we will probably just take him around to a few of the neighbors houses and then spend the rest of the evening passing out candy with my family, who are joining us again this year. In what is becoming my new favorite Halloween tradition, we will be dining on the “Bearcat” pizza from Adriatico’s. Yum!

Carved Pumpkin

This past Sunday I drove the family up to Lebanon, Ohio for a train ride on the Lebanon Mason Monroe Railroad. My father in law had bought us all tickets for the Great Train Robbery ride:

Travel back to the rough and tumble times of the old west alongside gold prospectors departing out of Lebanon to a connection bound for Yuma. Prospectors, known for carrying large quantities of gold, are often targets of train robbers. Warning: Be on the lookout for the  Big Iron Rangers, a gang of notorious robbers known well in these parts! The prospectors are prepared to defend their gold to the end, are you?

Lebanon Mason Monroe Railroad

Indiana & Ohio Car

Kim, Trey, and Nick

After a four mile or so train ride, all passengers were allowed back off of the train where a mock gun battle was staged. A couple of the period dressed employees acted as robbers of the gold on the train, so the sheriffs had to chase them down and shot most of them dead on the spot.

Sheriffs Doing Work

One Man Dead

Nick And Conner With A Robber

It was a fun way to spend the afternoon. Train rides of all kinds are offered most weekends throughout most of the year.

Kim and I have been busy watching craigslist for some new backyard entertainment for Trey. We finally secured a clubhouse on Monday and yesterday I picked up a swing set with slide. Hopefully this means that we won’t have to bust out the pool every time we go into the backyard to play. It seems to be working so far as Trey splits his time between both new items.

Clubhouse - Complete with mail.

Swing Set And Slide

The people I bought the swing set  from have twin girls, hence the pink baby swing. Trey doesn’t discriminate though.

Slide Time

He’s already figured out how to use the rope ladder that is on the front side. I figured he would use the steps on the backside for a while but he is proving me wrong already. I hope this provides hours of entertainment for the little guy.

Last night I headed downtown to see Kim’s graduation from the YWCA’s Rising Star program. From their website:

YWCA Rising Stars are a dynamic group of younger professional women nominated by members of the  YWCA Academy of Career Women of Achievement  to participate in a program designed to provide unique networking, mentoring, and educational opportunities.

The YWCA Rising Star program was created by the members of the YWCA Academy of Career Women of Achievement in 2002.   One of the goals of the Academy is to “lift as we climb” – to support younger women in pursuit of excellence in their careers.   In 2002, the Academy introduced the Rising Star program as a vehicle to recognize and support younger career women who will become our city’s future leaders.   By giving the Rising Stars the opportunity to interact and network with career women of diverse backgrounds, this program provides these younger leaders with the opportunity to address topics that will enhance their ability to further their career success.

The room was full of many very powerful young women. Being one of only a handful of men in the room,  it was a little intimidating actually. However I was happy to be there to show my support for Kim and congratulate the rest of these women. A few members of MUSE Cincinnati’s Women’s Choir were on hand to sing a touching rendition of “True Colors.” It was an inspiring evening.