Abby and Daddy weekend

Waiting on our burgers and drawing on the wall


At Casa Manana-- outside and inside


Pillow Fight!!!


Abby imitating a prize fighter and exploring the Water Gardens


Nothing like sweet tea for breakfast; also, getting ready for the bobsled ride at Six Flags







***This is a guest post by Greg***

This fall has been very busy for our family. Reese played t-ball and I was a coach for his team. The rain caused the season to get drug out and we ended up playing about a month longer than originally planned. Abby was a good sport about it but she was definitely ready for the season to be over. I decided that since I had spent so much time with Reese during t-ball that I'd take Abby for an Abby and Daddy weekend.

My original plan was to go out of town, but then I figured if we stayed close to home that we'd get to do more and drive less. Sooooo....after I got off work Friday we went to downtown Fort Worth and checked into the Sheraton (they remodeled it recently so it's not a dump like it used to be...actually kinda classy). We dumped our bags and headed to eat. We went to the Love Shack over off 7th Street. Abby is a sucker for a cheeseburger and they make a pretty good one. I had the Dirty Love burger that has a fried quail egg on it. Mmmmm. They had a band playing so we listened to music while we ate, then Abby found chalk and a wall where you can draw. She thought drawing on the wall was pretty sweet.

After dinner we went to Casa Manana and saw "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". We sat 2nd row and Abby liked the show. I'm always glad to support live theater, especially when it's good for the whole family, but...I wasn't a big fan of this show. It had some corny numbers and it was kind of slow. I give it 2 1/2 out of 5 stars.

The hotel had a pretty nice indoor pool so I figured Abby would want to swim after the show, but all she wanted to do was get a Dr. Pepper from the vending machine and play in the hotel room. So, for the next hour and a half she spent jumping between the two beds, drinking Dr. Pepper, and having a pillow fight. I think this was the highlight of the weekend for her. Then we watched a show on Food Network about Gravy and went to bed.

The next day we woke up, packed up, and checked out of the hotel. We dropped the bags in the car and walked across the street to the Water Gardens. Abby explored around there for a while until we got hungry, and then we drove down to the Paris Coffee Shop. I'd always heard of it but had never been so I figured it was worth checking out since we were so close and needed to eat. The food was decent, not the best, but the service was good and the place was packed with locals. It was a good change of pace from the typical chain restaurants. The best thing was the cinnamon roll-- Abby let me eat some of hers and it was pretty good. She said it was good until the seventh bite. Not sure what she meant by that.

After a big breakfast we headed to Six Flags. Abby is quite the thrill seeker so she was thrilled that we were going. She's never been to Six Flags but she's ridden a lot of roller coasters at Disney and with her grandparents in Missouri. It was a great day and there weren't many people so we didn't have to wait very long to ride. I think we rode everything in the park that she was tall enough to ride-- some of them we rode 2 or 3 times. I had been telling Abby throughout the day that there is a loop-de-loop ride that we could ride if she wanted to (the Shockwave). I didn't figure she'd want to but after we'd been there a couple hours she decided that she'd give it a try. She was pretty nervous when we buckled in, but we rode it once and she wanted to get back in line and ride it again right away. The second time she didn't like it as much for some reason so we set off in search of corny dogs.

We got 2010 Six Flags season passes for our whole family and they have a special where you can come for the rest of 2009 for free on your 2010 pass. So Becky and Reese came out there too and we rode a couple rides with them before Abby and I set back out on our own. Becky later reported that she and Reese rode the Judge Roy Scream seven times in a row. There weren't any lines so they just stayed on the ride all the way through.

At the end of the weekend I was worn out but it was a great time to give Abby some one-on-one attention.