Weekend in Fort Worth

Last weekend, or I guess I should say, weekend before last, we went to Fort Worth to visit some good friends who live there. We've known Ryan and Kim since college, so we try to get together with them ever so often. We had a great time just visiting and playing games, and Rachael has so much fun playing with their girls Kayli and Reaghan. Anyway, Ryan and Kim are gaming friends of ours, so we took every opportunity we had to play games like Settlers and pinochle. For old times sake, we even got out the Nintendo-64 for some Goldeneye action. We used to play that for hours at a time with them. This time, after about 30 minutes, we were all complaining that our eyes were burning. That's what getting older does to you.

One morning they took us to the Fort Worth Stockyards. People who I'm assuming are actors, whether paid or volunteer, I don't know, ride around on horses and are dressed in old-west style costumes. There's a staged gunfight, and the highlight of the experience is the cattle drive through the streets. Ask Rachael what her highlight was, and she'll tell you it was riding the 25-cent mechanical horses. Anyway, here are some pics from the Stockyards and also at Ryan and Kim's house.




Rachael saying, "Yee-haw," or maybe it was "Hee-haw." Not sure.


We're still scrounging up quarters for these things.


Little Man enjoying the scene--this was before the staged gunfight, when he was still happy.


More Hee-haw moments


Rachael was given the opportunity to pet the horse, but she declined.


She'd rather ride the fake one.


By this point, we were out of quarters, so she was just pretending.


Two of the actors in the staged gunfight. Rachael and I were in the potty room when the guns actually went off, but Mark tells me that Ryan did NOT like that at all. I don't know what we were thinking, taking our scaredy-cat baby boy to the scene of loud guns going off. It took quite a while to calm him down.




Calmed down and chillin' again, waiting for the cattle drive and parade to start.


Lots of Bevos, being driven through the streets. They were just a few feet from us. By this point, Rachael was hungry and whiny, so after all the waiting for the cattle drive, she was sitting in the stroller having a granola bar when it happened. She missed the cattle drive.


At the house, riding the rocking horse


Rachael playing dress-up with the girls