Alex's first kite flight

This is Neil on Kellie's blog. She felt it was better for me to write about Alex's kite flying adventure, since I was there. I'll warn you, I bit more lengthy than my lovely wife. Well...here it goes.
Alex got a Spiderman kite from our friends', Greg and Melissa, for his birthday. He had been hounding me about flying it every five minutes. I kept telling him, "Son, it has to be windy to fly a kite." The Central Valley bakes like an oven in the summer, usually with little to no wind. Tuesday, however, was beautiful. There was enough wind to make my flag flap. Kellie and Samantha were both gone, so I told Alex, "Get your shoes son. We're gonna go fly your kite."
Alex could barely contain himself on the way over. When we got to the park, which is a large grassy drainage basin, we found it nearly empty. The wind had picked up considerably, as if in answer to my son's prayers. I explained to Alex how you have to keep the string tight and to always hang on tight. I told him if the string went slack, the kite would fall. We went over the launch procedures. I knew he wanted to hold the kite, so I was dreading the "kite launching run" I would have to do at 95 degrees. I noticed the kite was getting a little temperamental in the wind. I held it above my head and it launched!! Not one strained step did I have to take!! I let the string out about 10 yards and handed it off to Alex.
He was beaming.
He watched it as it flew about with the glorious red plastic tail flapping in the wind. It would dip and turn and dance in the air.
After about 10 minutes (an eternity for a five-year-old), Alex tired of our location in the middle of the park. I let out the string all the way. The kite soared at 50 feet. I'm sure Alex was hoping that it would have a near miss with an airplane as high as it was.
We began to move forward to a small hill flanked by trees. We sat down in the shade and watched his kite. Alex was getting a little bored. I believe the magic of flying a kite had worn off and now he was just thinking about the playground behind us. Just then, the string went slack and the kite plummeted 10 feet. As I yanked the string tight, the red and blue Spiderman wedge lept high completing a full loop!! Alex wanted to see it do a loop again. As I reached for the string to pull it slightly, Alex let go of the handle. The wind pulled the kite away with the handle dragging on the ground. I said, "Go get it Al!" He ran with all his might. He caught up to the handle twice. But as young ones are, they can't run and grab at the same time. He would stop, then try to reach for the handle. The wind harrassed my son as each time the handle would jump away. They were now about 60 yards away from me and I slowly realized this kite was not going to fall to the ground without string tension. It was approaching a major 4 lane roadway and took chase. You have to understand, I've been a motorcop for a year and a half now. We generally don't get in foot pursuits, so I'm a little out of practice. But I gave it my all. I passed Alex and lunged for the handle. Now the wind had a more formidable opponent - me. Unfortunately Mother Nature was the better. A large gust of wind blew the kite up and away entangling the handle on a tree branch about 8 feet off the ground. I was looking and planning how I was going to get the kite down as I heard my son wailing behind me. His cheeks were wet with big fat tears as his lips quivered. "My kiiiiiiiiiite!" he screamed. I got down on a knee and hugged him. I told him we could get it back and that I could climb up just a little bit and get it back. Alex calmed down and I turned around to the tree. To my dismay, the lower branch released its hold on the kite. The kite flew higher and caught on a branch about 20 feet above us.
I shook the tree. I kicked the tree. I hung from a lower branch and pulled vigorously. Nothing. It was stuck. The kite was flying strong about 70 feet in the air for all the passing motorists to gawk at.
We walked home, hand in hand, with my son's head hanging low. I told him we could get another kite, but he wanted his kite. We were home for about a half an hour when I remembered I had a collapsible pole used for changing lightbulbs on our high ceilings. I said, "Get your shoes on son." We drove my truck to the scene. I had planned on trying to reach it with the pole. If it wasn't high enough, I was prepared to drive my truck into the park and stand on the roof to get my son's kite back. As we got closer, we saw his kite. Still flying high. However, when we got up to it, we discovered that it had untangled itself from the high branch and the handle was stuck in another tree - about six feet off the ground. I simply reached up and freed it. We brought Alex's kite down with him jumping and dancing about. My son was thrilled. How many lessons did a five-year-old learn that day? I'll probably never know.