Don’t forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of Football with the Guys here
SOME of the guys
Thanksgiving evening the guys in the family took a ride over to Sharon Springs Park in Cumming. It is right around the corner from Edwin and Geni’s so it was perfect. When we got there we found that it was a fully artificial turf field and was completely numbered!! It was AWESOME! Ever since that night I had been itching to play some more football with the guys. It was a great time and was a great way to keep active. My legs were SHOT after playing.
So last weekend I organized for a lot of the guys to get together and play and nice game of two hand touch / flag football. While we played the ladies planned to get together at our house as well. We had a great turnout of 17 guys! A huge turnout even though the weather was in the low 30’s as a HIGH. It was VERY cold but we all dressed warm and showed up to play a great game of football. It was such a blast again! We had some great highlights and just an all around great time. Everyone got along very well and we had no injuries. A total success! I was sore for like 4 days after playing. That sprinting over and over again really beats the hell out of inactive legs.
After the game we all headed over to Taco Mac for some food. The ladies and kiddos came up there as well to meet up with us. We had TERRIBLE service (always do at 141!!!) but ohh well… we still had a good time.
Shirt Lin and Kara bought
After Taco Mac everyone kinda did their own thing. We headed back home to hang out with Andrea and Ryan (and the kids). We all just hung out and talked until about 11:00 or so and then they took the trek back to D-Vegas (Douglasville).
We had such a great Saturday. Man did I have a great time playing football. It was awesome! We are hoping to get the guys together every other Saturday to play. Hopefully we can make it happen!
The shirt that is on Preston is quite a funny story. A while back Kara and Lin came over to watch a football game. Lin and I were in the living room watching the game and Alisha and Kara were in the kitchen. So Alisha must have caught a glimpse of two linemen pushing and shoving at the line and said, look at those two guys fighting at the hut-hut line LOL!!!!!!!!! She was referring to the line of scrimage but did not know any better. She will NEVER live that down. When Preston was born Kara and Lin got him a shirt that says future member of the hut-hut line on the front and Natic with a number on the back. It was a perfect gift!
Don’t forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of Preston’s first New Years Eve here
LOL!!!
We debated a few times whether or not to go out this year being that Preston is so young. Alisha really needed to get out of the house after being kept in for the past two weeks. This turned out to be a day of firsts for little Preston.
We headed out to get some things done and headed down to Alpharetta to join and do some shopping at Costco. That place was a total MADHOUSE! It was insane! You literally could barely walk in there. After leaving Costco without buying a single thing (just not worth the lines) we headed off to Walmart (the nice one off of exit 12) but not before stopping at the Phillidelphia Pretzel Company for some delicious soft pretzels!! mmmmmm! We then headed off to Bobby’s house to check out his new tile backsplash in the kitchen and take Preston to another first – Taco Mac!!! We sat down and had two beers before heading up to Danny’s house to bring in the New Year.
Danny, Kelly, Bobby, their parents, a couple from Chicago, Hector, Reagan, Geni and Edwin were all there. It was a nice chill night with good food and family. We had a few beers and some great times.
Dont forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of our Thanksgiving here
The setup
On Thanksgiving we headed over to Edwin and Geni’s house to stuff our faces like we have not eaten in 2 weeks – ohh and spend some quality family time. This Thanksgiving (and quite a number of past) was about 15 minutes away at Edwin and Geni’s house. The whole family as well as Reagan’s family all gathered for some good ol’ family time. Geni made two turkeys, ham, rice, and stuffing. Everyone who attended brought a dessert and a side dish to share. We brought sweet potato casserole and s’mores brownies for dessert to add to the long list of other items that people brought.
When we first got there we took pictures with Susan (some of which you saw in the belly album) for about 45 minutes or so. We then headed inside to get ready to stuff our faces. We ate and ate and ate and demolished the food plates that were setup. It was excellent.
After eating the guys decided to head out to Sharon Springs Park to play some football on their field before it got dark. Man…. we are old…. and even worse…. we are out of shape. We played on a 50 yard field and we were dying. At least the adults were LOL. It was miserable and great all at the same time. As we played some of Reagan’s family showed up to watch and happened to record one play. It happened to be the touchdown pass from Hector to me in the end zone. Hector sat back looking for an open reciever and patiently watched for someone to break free. He threw it to me in the back of the endzone and it was tipped by Danny / AJ and I dove for it keeping the ball from hitting the ground, bringing in the reception. It was a great catch. In the video it looks like it may have touched the ground. I promise you on anything that it didn’t and Dan was in the area from the opposing team to confirm it. As you could tell I was a little hyped up by the catch as I celebrated LOL!
After football we headed home to spend the rest of the night with the family. We had a great time as always and loved the food till the very end. Thanks for having us Edwin and Geni!
Well, it was Friday and I thought that going out for some Cuban would be the best thing to wrap up a good week.
While we were at our neighbor’s house we had been talking about good restaurants around the area and they had told us about a Cuban place called Tropical Breeze up in Flowery Branch. It is a bit of a drive, but it was supposed to be excellent. We decided to give it a shot and asked Hector, Reagan, Bobby, Danny, and Kelly to come along.
After work Hector and Regan swung by our house to pick us up to head to Bobby’s house to pick Danny, Kelly, and Bobby up to head to dinner. It was actually a little further away than I had originally thought. Everyone was saying how this place better be good LOL. When we arrived and walked in we were hit with the instant relief. It smelled awesome! It was a small little restaurant which seated us immediately. We ordered our food and waited…. and waited….. and waited…..and waited. Once we got our appetizers we quickly said “it was worth the wait!” The food was excellent and it didn’t stop there. Our main courses were excellent as were our desserts. What a place! I will certainly be going back and would recommend it to anyone looking for good authentic Cuban food.
Saturday morning was a big day as Hector and Reagan were heading back to the 3d/4d ultrasound studio to get their gender confirmation and I was excited to watch the UGA Auburn game with Lin. It was bound to be an excellent day!
So in the morning we woke up, got ready, and headed out the door to meet Hector, Reagan, and Geni and the ultrasound studio on Marketplace blvd to do their gender confirmation. This was the same place that helped us out when we were in need and I highly recommend them to EVERYONE trying to get a 3d /4d ultrasound done. See the bottom of this post for a full shout out. We went back and confirmed…. ITS A BOY!!! Looks like Preston is going to have another partner in crime to hang out with just like I did with Hector when we were young. It is going to be great for these two to grow up with another family member their age. I know it was huge for me. After the ultrasound we headed over to ihop for breakfast with Hector, Reagan, and Geni. We had a delicious start to the day and then headed off to go shopping at the outlet malls while they headed up to North Point Mall to do some shopping of their own.
After brekfast we headed up to the Dawsonville Outlet Mall to check out Baby Gap and pick up a few things for Preston. I have fallen in love with that store and before anyone gives any lectures, I’ll be sure to mention that we buy things when they are on sale and they are no cheaper than any other place we look for clothes and they are much cuter and nicer. We use coupons and watch the sale racks and love every bit of it. I can’t wait to dress Preston!!! We then grabbed lunch and headed back towards the house to meet up with Kara and Lin before the UGA Auburn game.
As you know I am a UGA fan and Lin is an Auburn alumni and huge fan as well. Well… today was the day. UGA was playing Auburn in Athens and it was bound to be a great game. Before it all got started Lin and I headed out to Home Depot to pick up some double sided sticky tape and then over to Taco Mac to grab a few beers and watch a little bit of the games on the tvs there. We had a some good guy time and then headed back to the house to meet up with the ladies. We caught some shit about disappearing for a while, but hey… we had some bonding time right? When we got to the house Jason Lucas had come buy on his way home from work to drill a hole in a keg for me before having to head back up to his house to get things done preparing for his move back to MD… damn you Jason…. we will miss ya buddy! Courtney was also there as she was in the area to work for the night and stopped by. I did not get to see her much but it is always great to see her.
We had Bobby, Danny, Kelly, Kara, and Lin over to watch the game and had a blast doing so. Auburn took an early lead and then after the half it was a battle to the end. UGA pulled off a HUGE win over the Auburn Tigers making my weekend!!! GOOO DAWGS! It was a great day full of things to do and excitement. Congratulations to Hector and Reagan! We are so happy for you two!
I want to recognize A Window to the Womb on Marketplace Boulevard in Cumming GA for helping us out when we were in need and providing such a great service to people. It was a beautiful studio with a huge screen and amazing technicians. If you are in the market for this type of ultrasound, please support them! Window to the Womb
On Wednesday we decided to head over to Wild Wing Cafe to grab some much needed and craved wings. Many of us had been really wanting some good wings but nothing around us will suffice. We have some crappy places around and it would be really nice to get a place that had excellent food. But what can you do? Drive to Alpharetta of course!
At Taco Mac, Bobby, Jason, and I decided that we needed to go to Wild Wing Cafe to spend some time together and grab some wings. We invited Mike, Aubree, Danny, Jason, Bobby, and Lindsay. It was a hilarious night as we stuffed our faces. As always Mike and I ordered China Syndrome (the hottest wings ever) and convinced Bobby and Lindsay to do the same. This was hysterical.. Bobby took one bite and just started pouring out sweat LOL. They are hot as HELL, but he was just dying LOL!!! After wings we headed to Cold Stone for some ice cream and then called it a night.
We had a great night talking and bsing around. It was perfect to break up the week! Going out on hump day is awesome!
You may have noticed that we stopped playing BINGO quite some time ago. I think everyone got a little tired of the food and we all got busy for a few weeks in a row and BAM! no more BINGO on Wednesdays. Well, Alisha and I got bored and missed everyone so we decided that it would be a perfect time to get everyone back together for a hump day dinner.
I sent out an email to everyone and we got a ton of positive responses. We initially wanted to do dinner at Chepe’s, a Mexican restaurant in the area but they could not accommodate the reservation so we moved it to Jim and Nick’s BBQ. We had a huge table!!! It was Joe, Carol, Dan, Hector, Reagan, Geni, Edwin, Danny, Kelly, mom, dad, Zach, AJ, Chris, Patti, Dave, Cookie, Frankie, Alisha and I.
We had a great time getting everyone back together. We love our family and our family friends. They are great and make for a fun time. We laughed, drank, and joked and just had a hell of a time. It was so great to see everyone again! We will need to do it more often for SURE!
Saturday morning Alisha and I woke up and got ready so that we could make it out to North Point Mall to get some shopping done before I head out to Athens for the night.
Alisha wanted to stop by a few stores in the mall to get Preston some clothes. I think he has more clothes than I do lol. Afterwards we left the mall to head to Rubin Brothers to see if we could get Alisha’s rings dipped in rhodium and have them cleaned as well as check DSW to see if I could find a pair of sneakers to wear for the night. Fortunately I was able to grab a pair and we headed back to the house.
Terrapin Brewery
I had plans to head out with Bobby, Dan, Danny, and Kelly out to Athens to hang out. As you should know it is one of my favorite places to be so I was really excited about it. I tried to get Alisha to come along but she just doesn’t care to be out there while she is pregnant which is pretty understandable. We headed out at about 4:15 to Terrapin Brewery for their brewery tour. They had their depth charge as well as their newest side project Pumpkinfest which are both awesome beers. Unfortunately, they ran out of Depth Charge before I was able to have it there, but fortunately there was another bar that was serving it in the area. While we were at Terrapin and a few beers deep, Danny asked me if I would be a paul bearer for his wedding LOL!!! He had no clue it was even wrong. I thought he was kidding, but after being called out he corrected himself and asked me to be an usher. ha ha ha ha.
Copper Creek Brewing Company
After Terrapin we always head over to Copper Creek for dinner and a few more drinks. For the first time ever, they had a milk stout (my favorite style of beer) on tap as well as their pumpkin beer. Both of them were absolutely incredible. I want to go back already to drink them. As always, we LOVED it there… the best food and the best beer around. Period. I wish we had a place like that around here. I would trade Taco Mac for that place every single time. It is a no brainer. After Copper Creek we headed out to Trappeze where we called it a night. They had the Depth Charge on tap (MMMMMM! – Terrapin’s Milk Stout with coffee) which was our final beer and we headed back home. It was an early night compared to our previous visits, but still great. I love Athens!
Trappeze Pub Athens GA
If you have never had Terrapin beers, you need to. Period. They are a nationally recognized brewery that happens to be right here in Athens. They have different beers for every different beer drinker. If you are unsure which to try, ask me. Ill give you a recommendation to meet your taste. If you are ever in Athens, you must visit Copper Creek and Trappeze. Both are excellent places!
On Sunday we went out with Dan, Bobby, Ted, Danny, and his girlfriend, Kelly to dinner and then out for some drinks. I had really wanted to try out 5 Season’s Grille in Alpharetta because they are a respected brew pub in the North Metro area. They also have some interesting food such as antelope and quail.
We met for dinner at about 7:45. We spent some time just talking, enjoying some great beer, and eating some delicious food. I won’t say that it was just insanely great, but I did have an excellent antelope burger! Some of the others were not wowed by their meal but no one was really unhappy either. If you like good beer and some different dishes, give it a shot. It was good.
After dinner, we wanted to go out and enjoy a few beers. We all went to the only place to drink – Taco Mac of course. We went to the one at 141 and regretted it. Not because the service was poor, just that we like the staff at exit 14. We had a few pumpkin beers and headed home. It was a nice Sunday with good friends. So excited we have Monday off. 4 day work weeks ROCK!
On Saturday afternoon we headed over to Geni and Edwin’s house for our normal Labor Day Weekend party. We spent time with friends and family eating great food, having a few drinks, and relaxing. It was the opening week for college football so we were sure to watch some games including the UGA game which was a huge disappointment. Made me think about how tough this season may be to watch.
My dad passed out as always!
Bobby’s brothers were in town (Ted, Danny, and Danny’s girlfriend) for the holiday weekend. I had never met Ted or Danny’s girlfriend before and had not seen Danny in quite some time. It was great to meet / see them. We had a great time with everyone playing corn hole and just BS’ing around. We made fun of everything and just had a blast.
