Bootcamp rap

Yep, I'm still doing bootcamp. Getting up at 5am every morning. I'm thinking about taking it to the next level too. More on that later.

So I gotta record this little ditty that a bootcamper (Tracy) wrote and shared with us one morning after a workout.


I had a big butt that was a fact, but I didn't want a gut or plumber's crack.
Went to the gym had some up's and down's but as it turns out I didn't lose a pound.
I was looking for a change
For a goal I was chasing
With OBC I got the proper motivation.

I got up at 5a.m. over and over again
Hit the pavement
Instructor's started chasing
I started cussing
They were fussing
"Get up that hill, this is no time to chill!"
Next came the rest, nothing but the best
Katie's killer crunches, somebody punch her!
Dougie D's dip's, "oh my hips!"
Cross Country Chris, "this, I could not miss!"
Leap Frog Lee
"Ya'll gather round the tree"
Tim's skating on ice, "Oh how nice!"
Rocking Robin's Running
Tricky Trent's Treat's
Dirk's Fast Feet
Burpee's for all! Good Call!
High Knee Karen, "she doesn't mind sharing"
And Superman Erin.
Ate the six small meals, logged it all and made several trips to bathroom stall.
Now "baby got no back" or "plumber's crack"
"Thanks to you all!"
Bumping in the Burbs
OBC Style

Austin - Bats

My favorite thing to do in Austin is see the bats come out at dusk. Congress Street bridge in downtown Austin is the home of the largest urban bat colony. The bridge was even specially constructed with grooves on the underside of the bridge to provide lots of roosting places for the bats.

We went to watch the bats from the top of the bridge this time. It takes about 20 minutes or more for all the bats to emerge from the bridge and go down stream to consume many tons of insects each night. Colin wanted to watch the bats from underneath the bridge, but I thought we might need an umbrella if we were to be down there (for all the bat poop!)

The bats starting to come out from under the bridge.

Clouds of bats going down stream.

Nathan and Colin listening to the vibrations of the bridge railing. I'm not exactly sure why!

Austin - Children's museum

Monday afternoon, July 7 while Bob was at his meeting, we went to the Children's Museum. When we arrived at the children's museum, Nathan went straight for the train table and played there for a long time. In the meantime, Colin was running around, trying to play with all of the stuff that was there in the shortest amount of time. Just a classic example of their different personalities.

Here are some pix of Colin and Nathan playing on the "bus" at the entrance of the museum.

Austin - Pool

Monday morning, July 7 we went to the hotel pool to cool down.

Austin - PF Chang's

Across from our hotel was a PF Chang's. The kids love chinese so this was a natural place for us to go. And Bob and I love PF Chang's. Now-a-days, chinese places have kid-friendly chop sticks. Both Colin and Nathan are pros at using them.

Austin - Caves

After hanging out on the boat all morning, we thought that the day just wasn't complete without going to Inner Space Caverns that are located just North of Austin off of I-35.

The story about Inner Space Caverns is really fascinating. Aparently, when I-35 was being constructed, and the Department of Transportation was taking boring samples for the area and kept losing the drill bits. So they drilled a 24" hole and lowered one lucky highway worker to be the first person to see these caves which cover 1.5 miles.

The caves are very beautiful and impressive. At one point, Nathan was concerned about getting lost, but I assured him that the guide knew the way out.

The cave entrance. You take a cable car down into the cave.


Colin touching the "temptation stone". Touching the formations is not allowed except for this one.


One of the formations called "chips and dip".


Splunker Nathan.

Austin - Lake Travis

After we decided to make the trip to Austin, we found out that a friend of ours had rented a "barge" for Sunday morning and invited us to join them. I had no idea what a "barge" on Lake Travis was going to be like, but it ended up like a big house boat minus the house. It had a top part that had a sunning deck and slide. After taking the boat across the lake, it stopped and let everyone go swimming around the boat. The kids really enjoyed it, as you can see from the pictures!

"You crack me up ..."

That's what I always tell the kids when they make me laugh. "You guys really crack me up!" But Colin sometimes gets the wording a little wrong when he uses our phrases.

So on the airplane on the way to Austin, I did something that was funny (at this point I can't remember what it was), and Colin says, "Mom, you crank me up ... like a basketball!" I have no idea where the basketball part comes from.

Austin - Travel day

As if we needed to be traveling again ... Bob had to go to National Instruments in Austin for a meeting on Monday, July 7. Delta just happened to have some good last minute deals to Austin, so just four days after returning from Omaha, we had the whole family back on a plane to Austin. Crazy people!

Par for the course, our travel day was hectic. I had a scrapbooking thing that I didn't want to miss Saturday, July 5, so I scrapbooked from 9:30am to 4:30pm, went home, packed and was on a plane by 7pm.

Although getting to the airport was an adventure in itself! Colin really wanted to take MARTA to the airport. There is a MARTA station about 3/4 mile away from our house, but no overnight parking at the station, which means walking 3/4 mile with kids and luggage in tow. It's 100 degrees in the shade, typical Atlanta weather for July, we are plugging along, with four suitcases, one umbrella stroller, and two kids, when a car stops and someone asks us if we want a ride. In my heat exhaustion, I didn't even recognize this person at first, but accepted the ride away! Turns out it's the former President of the neighborhood association and friend of ours which is even better. Getting a ride from a stranger is never a good idea, you know!

Made it too the MARTA station, then it was a matter of navigating all the stinky elevators to get to the trains, Colin and I would hold our nose in the elevators especial the one outside at the Inman Park station. The transfer point at Five Points where we had to get another train was also tricky. First we went to the wrong side of the tracks for our train. Then a couple more elevator rides, but first locating the elevators, we were on the right side of the tracks. Fortunately these elevators smelled a little better, but Colin still held his nose.

Finally we were at the airport and getting on the plane. Oh yeah, our seats on the plane were in four different locations, so another challenge (more for the gate agents), in finding two seats together in two locations. Then after we arrived in Austin, there was rental car issues. Finally we were checking into the hotel, Nathan fell asleep in the car on the way to the hotel. So getting the kids to bed the first night was really easy.

Coming next blog, the next morning (Sunday) we were getting up early to go on a boat ride, then visit the caves near Austin.

Words of advice

I got this from another blogger. It ranks up there with my favorite quote from Benjamin Franklin, "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."

"For attractive lips, speak words of kindness... For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people. For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. For beautiful hair, let a child run his/her fingers through it once a day. For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone... "
Audrey Hepburn after being asked for 'beauty tips'

The place that Colin forgot

"The place that Colin forgot" is a reference to a restaurant called "Doc Green's".

Colin wanted to go to a particular restaurant, but couldn't remember the name. All he could remember is they had chips and how to get there. We could not figure out where he was talking about, so ended up just following his directions (which is not a very easy task, following the directions of a four-year-old!). Eventually we ended up at Doc Green's and started calling it the place that Colin forgot.

Omaha - Fishing

My Uncle Ron was camping at Louisville during the holiday weekend and invited us all out to the campsite with my cousins and folks. So we went out Louisville which is only 20-30 minutes away and the kids got to go fishing. The boys loved it!

Colin inspecting a fish up-close and personal!

Colin catching a fish.

Using a Krispy Kreme donut for bait?

Nathan catching a fish.

Special thanks to Heath, my cousin Misty's husband, whose head I cut off in most of the pictures. He was very good about making sure that everyone caught a fish and experienced the joy in reeling a big one in!

Omaha - 4th of July

Another trip for the Sandage family, this time to visit the Grandmas and Grandpas in Nebraska. The adventures of this trip technically start the night before the trip, Thursday, July 3rd, when Bob and I chose to go to bootcamp graduation and an Ale Atlanta beer sampling meeting (me: bootcamp, and Bob: beer tasting) instead of packing. The inside joke is that Bob brings beer to his AA meeting!

Anyway, so after our night out, the next morning we wake at 5:30am to go run the Peachtree Road race, the foremost 10K in the country where 55,000 runners run down Peachtree Street. The first runners finish hours before the last ones start! Bob and I had different starting groups (randomly selected), I was Group 3 and Bob was Group 8. I was finishing just as Group 8 was starting ... poor Bob!

So after running 6.2 miles, we walk home and started to pack for the trip. Going out the night before took priority to packing! But we made it and were on the plane at 1:40pm to Kansas City where my folks picked us up for the 3 hour drive to Omaha. A quick trip to Bob's folks house to let them know we were in town (it was a surprise visit for them!) and then off to Rosenblatt Stadium to see the fireworks. Whew! What a day!

In the car on the way to Omaha from Kansas City, we had Colin call Gramma Mary to let her know we were coming. It was really cute, Colin said, "Grandma, can I come over? I'll bring pizza!" She must have thought he was going crazy, but then Bob got on the phone and explained everything.

It was interesting as we drove around Omaha on Friday, July 4th. Everywhere you turned was a giant inflatable gorilla or dragon indicating another fireworks stand. "Gorillas and dragons, oh my!" There were also family picnics and bbqs going on in every other yard that we passed. Tents set up, wading pools in the driveway, and families and friends getting together everywhere you looked. The spirit of the fourth seems to be much more celebrated where there are fireworks. Back home in Atlanta, you just don't see that many get togethers. I don't mean that Atlanta is un-patriotic, just that there is no comparison to the quantity of gatherings in Omaha. However, I like that there are no firework sales in Atlanta, and would not want anything to change in that respect. Fireworks are just too dangerous and not respected enough for the general consumer. I saw many examples of that during our stay.

Anyway, the kids really enjoyed the fireworks. Nathan had his hands over his ears most of the time and a huge grin on his face. Colin was very impressed with the huge fireworks at Rosenblatt which were the work of the Grucci Brothers, one of the most respected pyrotechnic companies in the world. There resume of firework displays is impressive including displays done by the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower and many many more.

From our vantage point, the whole sky was filled with the awesome show, and after a while created the optical illusion that the fireworks were coming right at us. Colin was a little un-nerved by this and kept asking if it was going to touch us. He was also very vocal with a lot of questions. At first it was "Is Grandpa doing this?", repeated over and over, very loudly, then "Who is doing this?", over and over. Then he would hide (that was probably when the optical illusion started). Nathan would just sit there with his hands over his ears. Although after I brought out the dried fruits, Nathan was too busy eating to cover his ears.

Grandpa and Nathan.

Bob and Colin chillin' before the fireworks started.

Bob and I with our Peachtree 10K Road Race T-shirts on!

The whole family enjoying the show.

Nathan's kisses

At this point, Nathan is our kisser. Colin has reached the point where sometimes he prefers not to be kissed, but you can always count on a big smacker-roo from Nathan. I remember a couple months ago, when I was getting Nathan out of the car to go into a store and he grabbed my face with both hands and plants a big kiss on my lips ... for a long time. Just going "mmmmmm" as he was kissing me in the parking lot. I have no idea where it came from but I'm not complaining.

Then again when we were in Paris standing in line for the Eiffel Tower, (I might have already mentioned this) he did it again, and again. He even gave Bob the Nathan treatment in the Louvre. Our joke was that someone had told Nathan that Paris was the city of love and he was just spreading the love!

Nathan is very generous with his kisses too and will kiss all the grandparents with little prompting. Colin on the other hand will shake hands if he doesn't feel like kissing or hugging.