Rescued from a Shark

Last weekend Lawrence hosted it's 4th Annual Tour of Lawrence bike race.  We thought Jack would enjoy watching the riders, checking out the kids zone and maybe even getting a glimpse of Uncle Austin who was on the fence on whether or not he would participate.  So we filled up our water bottles, covered ourselves in sunscreen and braved the 100+ degree heat.

As it turned out, not many others were as brave as we were.  The crowds were sparse, to say the least.  But it was a neat event and we were glad we went - even though we ended up missing Uncle Austin's race.

Here are the boys watching the women's race as they rounded a corner.

And the starting line for the men's race that followed.

Note to self:  When taking pictures, remember to shoot faces not just backs.  Jeez.

Anyway, as it turned out the most eventful moment of the day had nothing to do with bike racing.  Somewhere inside this giant inflatable shark is my son.

He was very eager to go down the slide, something he has done multiple times at other events.  So we let him try it, despite the fact that this one was quite a bit larger than what he's used to.  It wasn't until we saw a couple of kids hopping out of the mouth of the shark, kids that were behind Jack in line, that we began to wonder if he was having trouble. 

And he was. 

Poor little dude got spooked up there and was crying at the top of the slide.  Luckily, Daddy saved the day...and even got to go down the slide in the process.

Jack recovered quickly and I don't think he'll have any lasting scars from the experience.  Besides, a healthy fear of sharks isn't necessary a bad thing.  One things is for sure, he was awfully glad to see his Dad at the top of that slide.  And Jack told him as much when we finally decided we'd had enough of the heat and loaded up in the truck.

"Thanks for rescuing me, Dad."