The Robot Park

The children and I had a wonderful time visiting my family in Texas during the month of April. We spent time with my Grandmother, my parents, my brother and his family, my sister and her husband, and my youngest brother and his wife. I even spent an afternoon with my aunt and uncle. Over all we had a wonderful trip. We took the children to the zoo. That was a huge hit! We visited all my favorite restaurants in Fort Worth. Mmmm. Rosa's Tortilla Factory. *sigh*

One of my favorite places to visit was the Robot Park in Benbrook, TX. Benbrook is just next to Fort Worth, in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. My family lived near Benbrook until I was a preteen. The Robot Park was my very favorite park as a little girl. It was awesome. It had swings, slides, a catepillar climby thing, a baby swings, a merry-go-round, and best of all, a robot. Yes: the Robot park was named (at least by my family) for the giant metal robot.

If you look at the picture, you can see a ladder under the robot. You climb the metal ladder up into the robot. The lower level is fun to play inside. My brothers, sister, and I always pretended that we were trapped and would call to our parents to help us. Such fun. When Hannah and Katie climbed up into the lower level, guess what they did. They pretended that were trapped and called to my mom and I for help. So cute.

Once inside the lower level of the robot, you can climb another ladder to the middle level. From here, you can slide down the robot's arm slides. These slides are scary. They are very steep and fast and dark inside. I don't remember the last time I went down them. I did not go down them when I took the girls to the park. I was too scared. No, I'm not kidding.

There was once a ladder leading up to the robot's head. It is very high up there. It was a scary thrill as a kid. The ladder to the robot's head has now been removed and the entrance is sealed up. The metal on the floor of the head level is rusting out. Instead of removing the entire robot, the park people (whoever takes care of parks) opted to remove the ladder, making the robot safe for children for years to come.

It was so special to take my children to this park. I really had a wonderful time with them. All the equipment is the same. The robot, the swings (at least the metal frame, I'm sure the actual seats are not 30 years old), the caterpillar climby thing, the spiral staircase slide, the merry-go-round, the bouncy animals. It's all the same. Very cool. I took a lot of pictures with my mom's camera when she and I went. I hope to get them soon and post them.

The last Friday that I was in Texas my sister and her husband wanted to spend some time with me and the kids. I suggested that we go to the Robot Park, since the kids had enjoyed it so much. Heather and Jimmy agreed, so I met them there. We had a nice time. The kids played on everything. I put Elijah in the babyswing and Jimmy pushed the girls on the merry-go-round. The girls don't usually play on the merry-go-round, but there were not many kids that day so it was fun. Hannah decided to get off the merry-go-round and push it. Another little boy did too. Jimmy stepped out of the way so they could push it together. Hannah ran around the merry-go-round pushing it and laughing. Then she tripped. The little boy was running around also and tripped on top of Hannah. She started screaming like crazy. When he fell on her, it broke her leg. The tibia is broken just above the ankle. The growth plates are fine. She is scheduled to get the cast removed on Wednesday, just 3 days after she turns 4 years old.