A Peek at Life as a Natic

Check out our photo gallery to see Super Bowl 2010 pictures or click here.

Last Saturday, Mike and Aubree made plans to come over to make New Orleans Saints shirts for the babies to rock for the game.  Kara, Lin, and Bobby also came by to hang out for the day and do dinner. 

Preston's Reggie Bush shirt

The ladies bought shirts, iron on numbers, and iron on logos for to make some New Orleans Saints gear for Sunday’s game.  They came out really good!  Alisha made Preston a Reggie Bush shirt and Aubree made Kaitlyn a pink Saints shirt.  They were so cute.  Alisha and Aubree also made shirts for themselves to wear to match the babies.

On Sunday we headed up Kevin and Ash’s house to watch the big game and hang out with friends.  Alisha and Aubree were sure to get the babies together to take some cute pictures!  The game was so-so in my opinion, but the commercials and half time show were horrible.  Ill start with the commercials.  What happened to good, funny, commercials?  They were so lame this year!  Then we have the halftime show.  What the heck?!  What happened to Aerosmith with Britney Spears killing it up there?  What happened to mainstream music artists?  What is up with these multiple years of boring classic rock artists from before my time???  If you are going to do that, then throw a modern day artist in there from a different genre to get more people interested!  No one wants to see people nearly break a hip on stage in their old age!

Be sure to click the pictures link above to take a look at the two babies together.  So cute!

Last Saturday we had a busy day.  We woke up a little late and scrambled around to head to a neighbor’s child’s birthday party.  We were about 30 minutes or so late, but hey, better late than never right?  We had a good time eating some food and just chilling to celebrate Gabby’s first birthday.

Afterwards, we headed over to Hector and Reagan’s house to hang out with them for a while.  They were busy painting the nursery so we decided to swing by.  While we were there Geni showed up with pizza from Ray’s which hit the spot!  After Hector finished the nursery we just chilled and hung out for a while before heading out to dinner at Marlows Tavern.  We met Ashley, Kevin, Jason, and Amber at the one in Alpharetta for some grub.  I had been to one before in Duluth, but noone else had been to one.  Just like the Duluth location, it was a crammed restaraunt but for a good reason.  They have great food and a nice atmosphere.  We had a great dinner before heading back to the house to relax for the rest of the night.

Dont forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of Alisha’s baby shower here

Last Saturday was the friends baby shower that Aubree and Andrea threw for her.  The ladies planned to come over for the shower while the guys headed out to tour the Atlanta Brewing Company. 

Andrea and Aubree came over to setup and get things ready for the shower and that was the perfect time for the guys to get the hell out of there.  Bobby, Hector, Mike, Spence, Brett, and I headed out to head to Atlanta Brewing Company which are the brewers of Red Brick beers, the beer for Mellow Mushroom, and the house beer for Jim and Nick’s BBQ.  This is the first time that ABC was open on a Saturday so the crowd was quite small compared to what I normally hear about the weekday tours.  The brewery was a lot cooler than I thought it would be.  It had a nice calm bar atmosphere up front with a TV (which had the college games on) and the bar with their beers on tap.  The brewery was connected to this bar area and was open to walk back into where there were plenty of other tables and stuff to sit at. 

The brewery tour there was probably the most informative of any of the breweries that I have been to although it was a little lengthy and drawn out.  They also seem to somewhat cater to home brewers a little as they had a $4K + homebrewing system setup in there on a stand and the employees certainly mentioned that they brew on it as well.  The beers were pretty good but seem to be the most mild of the other breweries in the state.  For some this may be more enjoyable but I do enjoy when breweries push the styles with their beers.  All in all they have great beers and a great atmosphere. 

On the way home from the brewery I was reminded how fragile my stomach is and reminded me that I need to be very worried about being there for the delivery.  Hector was pretty hammered and had to pee really badly so jokingly we told him to pee in a 24 oz cup that was empty and in the car from an earlier fast food stop…. well obviously he had to go!  He peed in this cup in the back seat of the van and was like oh shit… it is filling up.  we definitely didnt believe him but we were quickly corrected.  I pulled over to verify but he opened the lid and the sight of 23 ounces of pee and the smell of it hit me at ounce.  I threw the door opened, eyes watering and all, and gagged out the window nearly throwing up.  It had the best of me for sure.  I am just such a wuss

Alisha's Baby Shower Cake

Well… onto the ladies… yeah I have no clue what they did… so let the pictures tell the story LOL.  Click the link above above to check them out.  yeah…. so … now that i have gone through the pictures many had to be left out… most you could see almost straight up Alisha’s dress and others had the funniest of expressions on people’s faces so they had to be left off of the internet LOL. 

Spence and Envy

After the shower and the Atlanta Brewing Company everyone came back to the house to hang out for a little while.  We ordered pizza, had a few beers, and called it an early night.  Damn we are all getting old LOL!

On Friday night we headed out to dinner with Jason and Amber to celebrate Amber’s birthday.  Paul, Rickii, Spence, Ash, Nelson, Grant, Jason, Amber, and her roomates were all there to eat some dinner and have a great time. 

Princess Spencer

We went to La Parilla, a Mexican restaurant at Windward Parkway and Hwy 9.  They probably have the nicest staff I have ever experienced for a restaurant and food to match.  I highly recommend it to anyone that happens to be in the area.  Spencer cracked us all up as he ordered wings at a Mexican restaurant LOL.  Who does that???  ha ha.

Paul

After dinner we headed out to Cold Stone for dessert before going to Durty Kelly’s Public House.  It was quite a nice place.  It was layed out very neat and had the typical pub feel.  The only thing that I can complain about is that the band was just ridiculously loud.  You literally could not talk to the person sitting right next to you even if you were screaming and we were as far from the band as you could possibly get in there.  It was rough.  They had the typical pub type beers, and what looked like great food.  I would give it another shot for sure as it may have just been that band…. but it was just so darn loud!

Wings at a Mexican rest???

Happy Birthday Amber!  We are glad we got to celebrate with you!  And how did we not manage to get a single pic of you??  LOL

Holy Taco

Last Friday we headed over to Alisha’s parents house to eat dinner and have dessert for Tiffany’s birthday.  We chilled out there for a while before heading over to Cinco’s to celebrate Ashley’s birthday.  We met up at Cincos with about 25 other people to enjoy the night.  They had a DJ and all of our friends which led to a great time.

Happy birthday Tiff and Ash!

Friday night was a big night for everyone.  We celebrated Spence’s birthday by enjoying some dinner and then headed downtown to celebrate Grant’s upcoming wedding.

Spencer had originally wanted to go to a new bar in the Cumming area but unfortunately they did not get their liquor license in time to be open for the weekend.  Because of this, Spence decided to move the party to Taco Mac – you wont hear me complain!  Alisha was a little less thrilled but came out to spend time with good friends.  We had a nice sized group of almost 20 and had a great time just BS’ing and eating / drinking.  We didnt have the best service (okay maybe the worst ever) but we made the best of it!

After dinner, the guys headed downtown to spend time in Buckhead, the Highlands, and then back to Buckhead.  We started out in a bar that turned out to be the visiting football team’s bar of choice.  We had to get the HELL out of there!  We headed out to the highlands and had a few drinks at a few bars there before heading over towards East Andrews in Buckhead.  They still wanted a cover charge even though they were closing in about 30 minutes, so we decided to head out of there.  On the way home we grabbed food at IHOP before making it to the house.  It was a long night of fun and we made it back to the house at about 2:30 or so.

On Saturday morning we woke up and headed over to IHOP in between exits 7 and 8 to grab breakfast with Mike, Aubree, and Kaitlyn.  After stuffing my fat face with far too many pancakes, hashbrowns, eggs, and bacon we headed up to see Mike’s dad.  It was great to see him doing so well.  As you may know, they are like family to me… hell, they were a second family for about 6 years of my life and I owe them lots for everything they did for me during that time and it continues all the way until now.  They are some of the most geniune and sweetest people you will ever meet and I am glad to see them all doing so much better.

After hanging out for several hours, Mike and Bree headed up to her parents house and we headed home to spend time with Envy before going out for the evening.  After spending a few hours with Envy and watching a bit of the Atlanta / Detroit preseason game, Dan came over and we headed off to Ashley and Kevin’s house for the night to celebrate Grant and Allyson’s upcoming wedding in Florida.  Alisha was invited to Allyson’s bridal shower while the guys chilled downstairs until it was over.  We had a great time.  I spent a lot of time hanging out with Allyson’s and Grant’s dad talking about everything from sports to beer to sex.  We really had an excellent time!  They were a riot!  Allyson, I love your dad… he was a ton of fun.  I have known Grant’s dad for Y-E-A-R-S now so catching up with him was equally great.

We spent the evening hanging out with many of our friends.  It was a great time and we were glad to be a part of it.  Unfortuantely, I did not grab any pictures as I was just chilling and when I did shoot some, I was using Amber’s camera.

Thanks for having us Grant and Allyson!

Dont forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of Brick Store and Sweetwater at pictures.neilnatic.com or here.

The Group

Wow!  What another great Saturday with friends and family!

Phil, Krystle, Hector, Reagan, Bobby, Danielle, and Dan all met at my house in the morning to head down to pick up Amber and Jason before heading to lunch in Decatur.  As you may know, I am in love with Brick Store Pub and this was the perfect opportunity to head down there for drinks and some grub.  We got a table upstairs near the Belgian bar and had a great time talking, laughing, drinking, and eating some great food.  Everyone else seemed to have the same opinion as I as we were leaving.  You have to love that place.  It is excellent.  If you have never been, you HAVE to go.  It is incredible with a great atmosphere, huge beer list, great food, and good prices.  A complete hit!  Check out their site here.  Here is our blog entry of our first time at Brick Store.

Great times with great friends

After Brick Store, we headed up towards Sweetwater Brewery.  As you know I am a huge fan of supporting our local breweries and fortunately we have three great breweries in the Atlanta area that make it easy to support them.  You may have read about Sweetwater Brewery on our blog here and here.  It is an excellent microbrewery with excellent beers but due to some previously tough tour hours, we never made it out to check out the brewery.  After helping out with the blueberries down at Serenbe Farms, we were told about Sweetwater’s new Saturday tour hours from 2:30 – 4:30 beginning today.  They have a live band, excellent atmosphere, great crowd, and of course excellent beer!  For $8 they give you a souvenir glass and 6 tickets to get beer each of which allows you a half pint pour.  They allow you to sample all of their year round beers and whatever seasonal beer is on tap at the time.  We had a blast talking, drinking, and hanging out with great friends.  I highly recommend you make it out to Sweetwater Breweryand encourage you even more to support your local breweries.  Sweetwater as well as the others make it easy to do so by producing beers that are nationally recongized for their excellence. 

At Sweetwater Brewery

After leaving Sweetwaterwe headed back towards the house and had everyone back over to hang out.  Hector brought some games and people played, drank, cooked, and chilled for several hours.  Being that we started the day early, everyone got pretty tired and headed home around 10:30 or so.  It was a great day and a hell of a way to start off the weekend.  If you have never been to Brick Store or Sweetwater GO!  You will not be disappointed.  I don’t get anything for bragging about these great local places.  I love great beer, food, and people and establishments like these keep Atlanta excellent! 

The taps with liquid heaven

We had such a great time today.  Thanks to all that came as well as the guy rapping about “eight ball in my corner pocket” to himself walking around Decatur.  Peace up.  A-Town down homie!  – for our not so urban readers… A-town is Atlanta. LOL

Dont forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of Matt and Laura’s Big Day at pictures.neilnatic.com or here

Saturday morning we woke up, got ready and headed out to Roswell for Matt and Laura’s big day!!!!

Matt and Laura got married in Roswell at Founder’s Hall on Saturday afternoon.  It was a gorgeous wedding with their friends and family there to celebrate!  A few of our friends were in the wedding party and many others in attendance.  It was a great wedding.  We are so happy for them and wish them a lifetime of happiness together.

NO - She was not really drinking them LOL

Congrats guys!!!

note:  unfortunately we did not get to take many pictures.  We allowed family to be closest to them for their big day and were further away from most of the action.  If they post pics from their photographers I will edit this post and link back to them.

So Dan has decided to not renew his lease at the apartment that he had in Athens.  While he wants to stay so badly, he just can’t justify the monthly payment for rent any longer when he can stay at my parents house for free.  He needed to be out by Monday so we made plans to help him move some stuff out and then go out downtown to enjoy the city we love so much!

Friday night we got back to the house pretty late, but I woke up (yes I… Alisha is a little LOTsleepier than I am) at about 7:30 and took the car to Acura to get a transmission flush done.  After that, I headed over to the Sport Clips right by our house to get a quick haircut .  Alisha finally woke up while I was there so I headed back to the house to spend some time with her before we headed out to Athens.

We decided to take Envy over to my parents house before going to help Dan and while we were on the way I got a text from Jason Weber asking what we were getting into.  I told him we were heading to Athens and asked him to come along with Amber.  They decided to do so and met us at my parents house, rode with us to pick up Bobby and the 5 of us took Bobby’s truck up to Athens.  When we got there we busted our asses to move out what was left and crammed most of it into the van.  Dan and I took quick showers and headed downtown for some fun!

As always, we went to Copper Creek for dinner and our initial drinks.  I LOVE this place.  It is my absolute favorite place in Athens and my mouth just waters every time I think about it.  If you are ever in Athens you HAVE to go.  Do a search (search bar in the upper right corner of this page) on Copper Creek if you would like some more information from previous posts on this excellent brew pub.  After dinner and a few drinks at Copper Creek we headed to another bar called All Good.  It has an awesome upstairs area where it is open and they also have an excellent selection of craft beers.  We grabbed a few there before heading over to Generals (a redneck southern bar), then to the Globe, then to Trapeze (another excellent bar with a hell of a beer selection) where we wrapped up the night.

We had such a great time.  From laughing at the guy with back hair from hell (look at the above picture – it is hard to tell but this dude literally had just as much back hair all the way up his neck as he did on his bushy head LOL), to watching the guys come out of the bathroom without washing their hands (and Amber calling them out to their face lol), to just kicking back with great friends and family.  Athens just brings a smile to my face… the whole environment is just great!

I love Athens.  Period.  I wish I went to school there, but then again, I most likely would not have made it through college.  I can’t wait to go back again… hopefully we make it soon!

On Sunday evening Jason Weber and Amber got engaged!!!!

We are so happy for both of them and are excited to see their lives continue together. 

Congrats guys!!

Saturday morning I woke up and headed to Publix to pick up some waffle mix as Alisha was really wanting them for breakfast.  I woke her lazy butt up when I got back and we made waffles and ate breakfast together.  They definitely hit the spot for me.  I hadn’t had waffles in forever!  Alisha then got ready and headed out with Kara to do some shopping and run some errands while I edited a picture for Mike and Aubree and played a little Playstation 3. 

Saturday night we had plans to head over to Kevin and Ashley’s pool to celebrate Matt’s birthday.  Laura picked up a keg for everyone (but me – I cant drink that beer ).  We had a nice group of people and were just hanging out.  It was a hot day but was more bareable as the evening went on.  This summer has been more than brutal already!  We will just say that as the evening progressed it was nothing short of a cluster.  Eventually everyone  kinda went their own way.  We decided to go with Mike, Aubree, Krystle, and Phil to IHOP at the outlet malls for a late night snack.  We had a great time just BS’ing and catching up which turned out to be the highlight of the evening. 

Saturday was interesting, but hell, I had a good time…

While this week kinda dragged on a little bit, I did a fair amount of fun stuff throughout the week.

On Tuesday Spence, Bobby, and I met up at Taco Mac for some dinner and a few beers to make the week go by a little faster.  Wednesday was the typical BINGO night at Ray’s Pizza in Alpharetta which is always a blast!  Last night we headed up to Maggianos to meet up with about 18 of Grant’s friends from college and high school to celebrate his birthday.  Unfortunately Alisha was completely miserably sick last night and could not even eat a bit of her dinner at her favorite casual restaurant.

It was fun…. but now I feel like a whale LOL.  I would like to say that before this week, I had shed all my cruise weight   I was scared for a while!

On Saturday Alisha was going with the girls to Laura’s bridal shower in Alpharetta.  Since the girls were all out doing their thing the guys got together at Matt’s pool and just hung out and drank some beer.  Matt’s brother (Will) got a keg so a few people chipped in to just drink off of that for the day.  I picked up a six pack of beer and my cooler and drank my own stuff (you know I cant drink Miller Lite ).  We hung out, talked, and had some beers, before meeting up with the girls back at Matt’s house.  It was a nice chill day in the sun. 

I am normally not one to just sit around and do nothing, but with so many people there it was actually a great time. 

Because Alisha and I were out of the house for so long, we had to leave Matt’s house early.  In addition, everyone was on Matt’s deck and they were smoking, so Alisha could not be out there.  We headed home and I gave Bobby a ring as I saw that he had texted me earlier.  I told him to come on over and we just chilled, caught up, and had a few beers until about midnight.  I tried to get ahold of Hector and Reagan but Bobby thinks that they may have been in Greenville. 

It was a great Saturday.  Hopefully we do something fun today as well!!

Saturday was the Dunwoody Beerfest which we all had tickets to but unfortunately the rain was sure to put a slight damper on it.  Alisha went out with Aubree earlier in the morning while I waited for Bobby and Spence to come over to our house to head to the drinking festivities.  They got here at about 12:30 or so and then we headed out towards Alpharetta to go to the homebrew store for supplies for tomorrow’s brew for Dan.  After picking up the ingredients, we headed over to Amber’s apartment to meet up with her and Jason. 

By this time it was absolutely pouring and we were a little worried about how Beerfest was going to turn out for us.  When we got there it was still raining with no sign at all of it letting up at all but we were all convinced that we were going to make the best of it.  Once we got there we met up with Ash, Kev, Matt, and Laura and had a great time enjoying the day (in the rain) and drinking some beer.  The rain let up about an hour into the Beerfest and it actually began to be a nice day.  It was overcast which was nice and really helped to keep the heat away.  After a few hours Jason and Amber found the trivia tent and had a blast with it.  Jason played in two trivia games and Amber played in one as well.  All three times they won pretty easily.  It was a great time!  We spent most of our time laughing and just enjoying being with friends regardless of the weather.

After Beerfest Bobby and I met up with Alisha and Aubree and some friends to hang out for the rest of the evening.  They spent the day over at Krystle and Phil’s house so Bobby and I met them over there to hang out for the evening.  We had some dinner, watched the end of the Braves game, and played Partini until around midnight or so.  As expected ( ) they guys beat the girls in Partini.  It was a great time!  I wish we could have stayed a little while longer as we had a blast, but we were just exausted. 

Saturday turned out to be a great day.  The rain did not put a damper on things at all and we got to spend time with a number of our friends. 

Oh! and just 7 more days until our CRUISE!