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!
Friday night we went with Dan, Bobby, and Kara to Gordon Biersch down in Buckhead. Gordon Biersch is a brewpub / restaurant chain that has a few locations in the Atlanta area. I had been wanting to try it out for quite some time but my fear of lagers has kept me away. Well I was wrong. I should have gone there years ago.
I am a big ale person and love my dark, bold, thick beers. Since most of the American popular beers are lagers, I have built up a large amount of hate for this type of beer. I should have opened up sooner. These beers at Gordon Biersch were quite good! They are not as heavy or as bold as the stouts that I typically like, but they were still quite tasty smooth and flavorfull. I am a fan and will be sure to give more lagers a shot when out drinking at Taco Mac or similar bars. I will certainly look for ales first, but I will not turn my head to the lagers anymore. Well most of them that is. I still dont care for the typical American Lager, but the darker more complex styles were good.
The food there was also very good. We had some hiccups with our order but they were polite and very quick to resolve them with no questions asked. The management staff came by to make sure all was corrected as well which was nice. Without a doubt, I would return to Gordon Biersch. I really enjoyed it!
I would certainly recommend you give them a shot! We loved it!
Last Saturday we made plans to leave the kiddos at home and head out for an adult dinner at Maggianos in Buckhead. Alisha’s birthday and Ryan’s birthday are only a day apart and we always make an annual trip to Maggianos – and this year was no exception.
In the afternoon I had tried to get all of the guys together for a good game of football. We had about 10 people that were in but most of them backed out due to a little rain. Four of us showed up and we said “screw it, lets play”. We played for a while just as a QB and one receiver taking turns trying to make it into the end zone. It was fun on its own, kept us active, and made for a good time. We were soaked, but it was still so worth it. Afterwards, we headed over to Taco Mac for a quick beer and then headed home to get ready for dinner later in the evening.
We made plans to leave little Preston with Alisha’s mom and head out with friends. Bobby and Courtney came over to our house and we headed out to Buckhead to meet up with Mike, Aubree, Ryan and Andrea. We had an excellent dinner and had a great time. It was very nice to see everyone again and as always the food was spot on.
You know us… always need to be doing something, so on Friday I decided to make a run up to Dahlonega to try out a few places that I have not been to. Since I wanted to head up to try out a beer, I made sure to call Bobby up and see if he wanted to join us. He of course decided to come along. On the way up we took a few minutes to show Bobby the NGCSU campus and then headed off to grab dinner and drinks.
We were told about an Irish Pub just off of the square in Dahlonega called Shananigans. It was in the basement of a house that was turned into a restaurant / pub which was pretty cool. The place was quite full (not very large though) and had a great vibe to it. Everyone was kinda seated close to each other and the decor was like you would expect for an Irish Pub. The food was quite delicious and the wait staff was on point as well. Everyone there seemed to know each other and the friendly table next to us occasionally carried on a nice conversation about everything from food to beer to Preston. It was great.
After we ate we headed over to Caruso’s to try out the stout that they brewed for the season. On the way out the friendly table next to us warned us about the beer but we did not take their advise and shrugged it off. Holy crap were they right! We headed over to Caruso’s and ordered just the beer. It was the worst beer to ever touch my lips. When I say it was bad I mean it was TERRIBLE! The beer had a very distinct sour taste to it and was just freaking awful! I would rather drink Bud Light by far… hell, I’d drink a keg of Bud Light to not drink that again. While we were sittingn there just looking around, Alisha spotted a rediculous painting of Dale Earnheart. It was a picture of him above his car about to be spun into the wall that killed him… all in the middle of an Italian restaurant next to a nice mural. WTF?!?! Bobby and I left a full glass of terrible beer on the table, got our checks, and got the hell out of there. UGH!
Alisha has been wanting to stay active so that we she asked me last week if I wanted to go to Athens on Saturday night. Are you kidding me? Of course I want to go to Athens on Saturday night! Bobby was in for the ride in a heartbeat. I asked Hector and Reagan to join as well as Reagan still has never been out there and she was actually quite interested in going this time! She has been wanting to come along but being pregnant and not able to drink has deterred her thus far.
We had Alisha’s mom watch Preston for the night and we headed off with Bobby, Dan, Hector and Reagan out to Paradise City; I mean Athens. We headed to Terrapin, as always and enjoyed some great local brewery beers and then over to Copper Creek for some excellent dinner. Dinner and drinks were great but man was it FREEZING. It was in the teens in Athens and unfortunately Copper Creek’s heating system was not working so we froze. LOL. Hell, it was still worth it. We then headed over to Trapeze for a few more drinks and hung out. By then we were cashed in. We are old now but we still had a great time. I Love Athens!!
I am so glad you came Reagan. I hope that you had a good time and I look forward to you being able to come when you are able to enjoy it more! Little Preston did well with his Grandma at home. He slept and ate well and was very easy to care for while we went out.
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!
Yesterday we had a few visitors over to the house to check in on us and to see our little Preston. Bobby came by in the early afternoon to hang out for a bit. He brought Alisha a very thoughtful gift and stuck around for a bit just to catch up. With us having Preston and him being busy at work we have not had much time to catch up. He had to head out before long but it was great to see him for a bit.
Mike and Aubree had planned to come by last night as well and bring us some dinner (thanks guys!!!). Aubree and Kaitlyn came by earlier and then Mike came straight from work. We had La Cazuela which Mike picked up on his way home and watched some Intervention for a bit. I LOOOVE that show BTW… I am addicted to drug addicts LOL. Baby Kaitlyn was SOO cute when she saw Preston for the first time. She started smiling and going nuts when she was next to him. It was sooo cute!
It is crazy how big she has gotten in the 7 months she has been around. I cant believe little Preston is going to grow so big so fast!
Man in two of these pics, the guys on TV look like they are looking at Alisha, Aubree, Kaitlyn, and Preston LOL – kinda creepy!
On Friday night we headed into the city to check out a brew pub that I had been keeping an eye on with some of our friends. It was called Max Lagers which was located right by the SunTrust building in downtown Atlanta.
We went down with Bobby and Dan to grab some dinner and drinks and met Andrea and Ryan there. We had a great time just talking it up but I will say I was not impressed at all with the beers. I felt as though they were very watered down. It was almost like good beer Bud Light style…I don’t know… there was absolutely no beer taste there. Let’s put it this way. We all know Alisha hates beer…. she actually liked this.
I dont know if we had a bad batch or something, but it was no good in my book at all. We were one of three tables on a Friday night and that may be why. The food was okay, nothing great really, but the service was great. Our waiter really went out of his way for Alisha and that was really cool of him.
It was a chill night with some good company to wrap up my birthday.
This afternoon I decided to spend about an hour and half brewing a new cider recipe that I had found. The first cider that I brewed came out terrible due to a wild yeast strain that took over fermentation. I recently brewed another cider which is currently in a keg to age in the garage. Ciders are easy to brew and also very cheap, but unfortunately they need to age for quite some time before they become very enjoyable. Knowing that, I decided to throw another batch together with the intent to age. This particular recipe is kind of a hybrid between beer and cider but is supposed to be very good. It has grains and hops added to it as well as 4 gallons of apple juice to complete the “cider”. I am looking forward to this one and can’t wait to see how it turns out.
After brewing Bobby came over and we headed to dinner at Bucca di Beppo. We had a great time catching up on events from the week as well as enjoying some good food. I will say that I was very shocked by the new pricing. It costs quite a bit more than Maggianos and the food is NOWHERE near as good. That may be my last trip to that place for me. Great atmosphere but those prices are kinda ridiculous even though you are supposed to share.
After dinner we headed to Cold Stone for some ice cream and then to Taco Mac so that Bobby and I could have the limited beer from He’Brew called Jewbilation 13. It is a 13% alcohol beer and is made with 13 hops and 13 grains. It was pretty damn smooth for that kind of alcohol content and was a perfect way to wrap up the night.
notes: The cider (Graff) has an OG of 1.064 (expected an OG of about 1.060).
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.
Well… the day has actually come… the day that we have to say goodbye to our friend Jason. He is moving back to Maryland and today is his last day to hang out
Taco Mac Thursday is tradition for the guys and he joined us often for beers and a great time. We decided that it would be most appropriate to meet at Taco Mac for the last hurrah. We had a great dinner with friends and said goodbye to our good friend. We will miss you man…. take care of yourself and your family. We will have to come up to visit you soon!
After work on Wednesday Bobby, Lindsay, and I headed down to the city to go to Sweetwater Brewery. Lindsay had some free tickets to a tour so it worked out well.
We took her car down there but after a few drinks at Sweetwater, I quickly offered to drive. She doesn’t like to drive at night much and didn’t know where she was going so it worked out well. Sweetwater had their Festive on tap which was awesome and they even had a cask version of festive with additional hops added to it. MMMMM! It was tasty!
Love this picture
After Sweetwater we headed to my favorite bar / restaurant in the city, Brick Store. Lindsay had never been there but had heard about it so it was a prefect place to go. When we got there they were fairly busy and were on a 45 minute wait. We decided to just grab some drinks at the bar and eventually we decided to just eat there. We had some excellent beers and some excellent food. That place is just flat out excellent.
Mint Chocolate Cake
It was a great time and the perfect way to keep a great week going.
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 Thursday I had no plans to head to Taco Mac and we were having Courtney come over to have some dinner and chill at our house. I had a rough day in the Kennesaw office and was exhausted and was eager to get back to the house to unwind. As I got home, I called Alisha who reminded me that I needed to grab some food so that we could cook dinner. Damn! I had to pull back out of the driveway and head back to Publix to grab something for us all to eat. On my way home, I am pulling into the neighborhood when I get a text message from Bobby who was stating that he was drinking Terrapin’s new beer which was just released for the first time. I had not had it and was extremely jealous. I sent him a damn you text, brought the groceries inside, and headed off to Taco Mac to taste this new deliciousness! Damn was it good! Everything they make is ridiculously good! I love that brewery!
I grabbed two drinks and headed home to meet up with Alisha and Courtney. As a matter of fact, I was there before she even was! That was the plan of course . We had a nice dinner and chilled and they showed me the awesome gift that Courtney had made for Alisha’s shower. It looks great! I was quite impressed!
. We had a nice dinner and chilled and they showed me the awesome gift that Courtney had made for Alisha’s shower. It looks great! I was quite impressed!
