SWAG Family Day at Olympic Park

I took the three older kids Mikaela, Jayden and Zachary to the SWAG family day on Saturday at Olympic Park, right next to Silverwater Prison... er I mean 'Correctional Centre.'

The weather held out and we had a delish BBQ lunch cooked up by the one and only SWAG leader Andrew Mills. Then we went bike riding. Of course, Jayden took the lead, followed closely by Mikeala and Zac. After going by the Archery Centre, where Jayden almost had an apoplexy because the minimum age is 10 and he's 9.5, the kids went off with Andrew to the 'hidden playground,' which is like a park set in bushland with some weird eco-friendly urban art.

I rode my bike back to get the car and had Scamper (our dog) in tow. Scamper and I eyeballed each other at the starting line, then we were off! Neither wanted to give ground... He lead most of the way, until I got into 5th gear... then we were neck and neck. His little legs were pumping so hard I could only see the cartoon-like blur under his body of his four limbs...

... then... he saw... the other dog!

I heard a yelp and saw Scamper's bottom up in the air as his hindquarters tried to overtake his shoulders...

Poor Scamper... nobody can tell a 1.5 year old dog that gentle braking is the way to get from 60km/h to zero without using one's face as an airbag for one's head... Apparently Scamper's thinking went: "run run run, oooh another dog, stop and bark... whoops!"

So Scamper had a bit of an embarrassing moment with the other dog's owner commenting "hehehehehe..."

In the meantime, this is what my calm, sedate children were up to...