Dont forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of our day in Helen here
On Sunday morning we went out to breakfast at IHOP -MMMMMM! I LOVE IHOP! – before heading up to Helen for the day. Alisha’s grandmother (who’s name is Helen) had never been up there so we figured this was a perfect time being that it is Oktoberfest. We went up to the winery (which can sell alcohol on Sunday by the way!) to pick up some wine for her grandfather, and then headed to the grainery. I love this place. I don’t really care for the grains in all honesty. Grits and poridge are not my thing, but the place is so neat. It backs up to the river and they use the water to turn a turbine below the grainery. This turns one huge adjustable stone overtop of another one which grinds the grain so that it can be used for cooking. Behind the grainery they have a dam that they built which creates a beautiful waterfall and such nice scenery. It is awesome! A guy that works there is very passionate about his job. He loves meeting people there and really enjoys telling how the grain mill works and what modern technology has done to grains (the significant reduction in whole grain products because the parts of the kernel gum up modern machines). Yes they are much more efficient but also much less healthy.
After the grainery we headed into the city and walked around for a while. We grabbed some chocolate goodies and did some shopping as you always do while you are there. Afterwards we headed back home to make some dinner with Kara before calling it a day.
It has been great having our family come and visit us in Atlanta. We wish it would happen more often, but I guess we can take our happy asses up there as well LOL. Well, maybe after the pregnancy. Alisha is in her third trimester and is therefore grounded.
Dont forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of Alisha’s Family Baby Shower at pictures.neilnatic.com or here
This past Saturday was Alisha’s baby shower which was thrown by Kara and Alisha’s mom. Her grandmother and her Aunt were scheduled to fly in from Pittsburgh in the morning so Denae picked them up and headed up to the house to finish getting ready.
They were cleaning, cooking, and decorating which was my cue to get the hell out 
. I took Envy to my parents house and picked Dan up to head to Taco Mac to watch the UGA game. Mike and Bobby also met us up there for some lunch and drinks. We had a great time – until kickoff that is. The Dawgs played like total shit which really ticked me off! They have had a terrible season so far and it has been very tough to watch the games each and every week. Hopefully it gets better, but I have to be honest, it is not very likely. We may just need to write this season off and chalk it up to experience.
Well, obviously I was not at the shower, so I cannot say much about it, but I can tell you to here click the link above to see the pictures, and maybe it will bring back memories, or it will tell the story for itself
Thanks to everyone that came. It means a lot to us and your gracious gifts are SO appreciated. We cannot thank you enough.
After the shower and cleaning up, Denae and her mom had to go back to the airport. Yep you guessed it – she flew in and out in the same day and Denae was here for one full day. That was so nice of them to fly in for this shower. Once everything settled down, we headed to the Cumming fair for the evening. We had a good time people watching (a must at the Cumming fair) and just hanging out. We had some carnie food, walked around, and then headed out.
It was a great day!
Dont forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of our night at Uncle Shucks at pictures.neilnatic.com or here.
Foggy Uncle Shucks!
Friday night we got together with Bobby, Phil, Krystle, Kara and Lin to have some dinner and head to Uncle Shucks Corn Maze. We love the fall so this is the beginning of our normal fall festivities!
We all met for dinner at a place right next to Gold’s Gym in cumming. It is not a fancy place but had good food and good service so it works. There were a lot of people there so it must be pretty good. We had a great Mexican dinner and drinks and then headed out to Dawsonville to go to Uncle Shucks Corn Maze. It was a nice chilly night and it got even better when it got extrememly foggy! It was so cool to see the fog all over the corn maze as wel pulled up.
Uncle Shucks is a huge corn maze located off of hwy 53 in Dawsonville GA. They have different designs every year and it is a blast to go to. Not only do you have to find your way through the maze but you are supposed to punch your map with each of the 12 punches at each checkpoint. It is great for families! They have the two main mazes, a haunted maze, a kiddie maze and a hay ride. It is an absolute blast. Every year we take a picture with Uncle Shuck. This year he had the ladies sit on pumpkins in front of the ”Do Not Sit on Pumpkins Sign” lol.
If you have never been there, you need to. It is a great time and perfect for the season! We cant wait to continue our normal fall festivities throughout the rest of this month!
On Sunday morning, I woke up early to start brewing a beer that I have been dying to do. It is a Banana Cream Ale!! It is a medium bodied beer that after fermenting will sit on 5 lbs of bananas for about 2 weeks. I cannot wait to taste this! It will have lactose added to it for a creamy mouthfeel and a hint of vanilla. Should be a hit just as my Caramel Vanilla Cream Ale was. I spent about 4 hours cleaning everything and getting it all brewed up outside on the back patio. It was nice to brew again. Yeah it takes some time, but it is still fun and oh so rewarding. Heck, I am drinking a homebrew that I brewed almost a year ago as I type this.
Brewing my Banana Cream Ale
Kara and Lin spent the night over Saturday as Kara was going to come with us to Edwin and Geni’s house to hang out since Oktoberfest was canceled due to the rain. Lin had a kickball game in the city that he had to go to so he was unable to hang out with us. Edwin and Geni invited all of the family and a few family friends to come over to enjoy the catered food and just hang out. It was a great relaxing day. We talked, watched some football, drank, and just hung out.
This weather is excellent! I am so glad fall is here!!!
For my own notes the beer finished at an OG of 1.052.
On saturday we had a full change of plans. We were really looking forward to going to ENC CPA’s annual oktoberfest at the office but the rain forced a cancelation of this event. In addition we were hoping to make it out to Stone Mountain to go to the annual Chili Cook-off they were holding. The rain kept us away from this as well 
We decided that with such a waste of a day, why not have people over at the house for some dinner, drinks, and football – okay I decided on the football part LOL. Kara and Lin came over early and we spent some time watching some football and talking before heading out to Target to grab some stuff to brew beer with and for some party food and then to Home Depot to take a peek at a rug for the playroom. We then grabbed lunch at Atlanta Bread and headed to the house to get ready.
We had Mike, Aubree, Kara, Lin, Spencer, and Bobby over and had a great night. I ordered some pizza, we drank some beer, and watched a lot of football The UGA game was on late and was a very stressful one – that seems to be the damn trend lately. A win is a win, but I swear I stress out more during those games than I do at work LOL.
Everyone had a good time and we spent the night with good people. That is all that matters. Thanks to all that came!
Saturday was the day that I was looking forward to for months! Motley Crue was in town doing Cruefest 2 with several other bands (including Godsmack Drowning Pool, and Theory of a Dead Man). Before the concert Bobby, Dan, Courtney, Hector, Kevin, and I all went out to Sweetwater Brewery to have a few beers and to try out the beer that we picked blueberries for several weeks ago called Big ol Blue Balls. It was a great time at Sweetwater as always – until Courtney broke her sandal walking out LOL!!!
We took a side trip to Target to get a replacement pair for her and then went into Atlantic Station to eat a quick dinner and head to the concert. While we were out Alisha hung out with Kara to pick out the dress that they are going to get for Denae’s wedding next year. She tried to meet up with Ash as Kevin was out with me, but schedules did not happen to match up. We’ll catch you next week girl! Reagan was also free because Hector was with me so the two of them did some shopping and hung out for a while. With Reagan being pregnant, they have been spending a lot of time together and talking a lot. Its an exciting time for both of them and it gives them so much in common to talk about!
The concert was awesome – for me at least ha ha. Not too many others knew much Motley Crue stuff but I loved it! They played the entire Dr. Feelgood album cover to cover. I bet they may have been kinda bored, but whatever – it was awesome! Aside from the music, I have never seen so much trash in my entire life. These people must live in the woods or something. Within 10 minutes of us getting there, two fights broke out with multiple people fighting the security staff and all kinds of crap. It was CRAZY! 90% of the concert goers must have just come from a Meth party or something. These people were cracked the hell out, dressed like total trash, and just nappy! While we were there we also ran into my old boss from Publix. That was pretty crazy too. Hadn’t seen her in like 7 years plus.
We got home at about midnight and spent some time talking to Alisha before we headed off to bed. Unfortunately Courtney woke up with flu-like symptoms and left before being able to go to Andrea’s baby shower. Hopefully she does not have the flu, but it sure sounded like it. Alisha headed out to Douglasville to celebrate Andrea’s baby shower today while I just killed some time at the house. I started trying to paint the nursery but unfortunately I really need another set of hands to get any of it done. Trying to just mark off where the chair rail was going to go was nearly impossible and I just got too pissed to continue. Another day – ugh… I really want to get it done!
A sad envy watching us leave
Today we decided to spend some time with Alisha’s family. Kara and her boyfriend Lin were also up for the weekend and we had not seen them in some time so it worked out perfectly. Unfortunately Lin had a prior commitment and left around 2:00 or so, but Kara hung around for the evening.
We decided at about 3:00 to head over to Ellijay to stop by R&A Orchards and head into the little town. It was about an hour drive or so on back-roads. We stopped at R&A Orchards first to pick up some peaches and a few of their apple fritters and stuff. That place is awesome and has the best snacks ever. There are several apple orchards that you can purchase stuff at but I highly recommend if you are going into Ellijay to head there.
After picking up our snacks and stuff we headed on towards the little square in Ellijay. Unfortunately we got there a little too late as almost everything was already closed. In addition, the economy has really hit that town hard. A lot of our favorite places were not only closed, but closed permenantly
We walked around for about an hour or so through the stores that were still open and then headed back towards Alisha’s dad’s house. We ate some dinner there and then headed back to the house. It was a nice chill Sunday which was much needed after such a busy and great day yesterday.
On Sunday morning we woke up at about 10:00 to head up to Alisha’s dad’s house to picnic and chill up by a creek a while past Helen in the North Georgia mountains.
View Sunday in the Mountains in a larger map
We got to Alisha’s dad’s house and packed up the truck to take up to the mountains. Kara, Lin, Danielle, Alisha, and I rode in the truck and the rest of the family and Tiffany’s friend Lochlan rode with Alisha’s dad in the SUV. Alisha’s dad led us on about an hour and 15 minute ride up past Helen and to a small turn off where there was a place to park and a nice creek. We unloaded the truck and setup our picnic area to have lunch and hang out. I spent some time playing with our camera (of course ) and for some weird reason loved the shot below. It was just an old / faded Bud can, but I love the colors in it.
We spent a good amount of time in the creek and just exploring the area. We all had a great time for about 2.5 hours or so before heading back through Helen for some wine for Kara and Lin and then to Alisha’s dad’s house.
It was a nice relaxing Sunday in the mountains. After such a busy weekend, we needed a chill day to relax and enjoy with family.
Alisha with a parakeet
During the week, Kara called up Alisha and asked her if we would like to join her and Lin for a day at the zoo. Lin’s company was throwing a company gathering there and he was able to get four tickets to have a great day out. They were providing entrance tickets, rides on the train and carousel, as well as lunch at the Ford Pavilion where they will have a face painter, an animal to teach the kids about, a blow up tunnel, and a DJ.
Since we were heading down that way in the morning, I decided to book an appointment with Jackson Acura on Saturday morning at 9:00 AM. Since we got home late on Friday night, Alisha was dreading waking up but we made it all work out LOL. When we got down there we had the tech go on a drive with me. He was able to partially feel what we were trying to explain and recommended that we do a fluid change before we could attempt to have Acura replace the transmission. We will have that done sometime this week so that we can keep an eye on it. We are getting up there on miles and don’t want Acura to say that it is too far out of warranty to do anything even though we have had this “issue” documented for about 15k miles and a few visits to them. I am finally satisfied that they are recognizing that there is an issue. They offered a solution so I will pay to have it completed with hopes that the real issue is handled properly. In addition, the door piece that we ordered and never had installed was finally completed so the passenger side door no longer looks like crap LOL.
After leaving Acura, we headed out to Kara’s apartment in Atlanta. She lives in a gated neighborhood and has a very nice 1 bedroom apartment there near a few of her friends. After meeting Lin, we headed out to the zoo. We had a great time! It was a perfect day (no more than 78 degrees all day) with nice partly-sunny skies. We had a great time seeing all of the animals and just hanging out. Be sure to follow the link above to our photo gallery.
After the zoo we decided to head out to grab a drink. We were going to go to a place called Stats, which is a sports bar that has beer taps at your table which you pay by the ounce, but because of how busy they are we decided to head into Little 5 Points to grab a drink at a place called Front Page News. We chilled outside by their water fountain, ordered a few appetizers, and just relaxed before heading on to grab ice cream and head back to Kara’s apartment.
We had Envy at home in her crate so we had to head back at a decent time. Kara and Lin were busy for the evening so we headed back to the house. We decided to pick up Envy and head up to Alisha’s parent’s house to chill out for the evening.
We had a great time and it made for a great Saturday!
note: All pictures were shot in manual mode – None of them are WOW!!! but they all look as good as if I shot them in Auto if not slightly better. Just glad that I am kinda getting used to shooting manually. It is tougher than I even thought it would be.
This weekend Erin was in town from Pittsburgh to hang out with Kara and they decided to come up to stay at our house on Saturday. We tried to stay busy and show Erin a little bit about the north metro area and just have a great time. We went to Asian Table in Cumming for lunch and then went shopping on exit 14. Erin decided that she had not been bowling in far too long so we headed over to Stars and Stripes to see if we could get a lane. Unfortunately the wait was one hour. We decided to head over to the bar and grab a drink while we thought of something else to do in the area but the bar staff decided that we were not deserving of a drink or something and never served us. We got a little frustrated and said we may as well go to no other than Taco Mac of course. How could you go wrong??? ha ha
At Taco Mac we decided to head into the city to try out a few spots. We decided to go to Leon’s Full Service in Decatur and if that was too busy (because it just opened) we would head to Brick Store which was only a few blocks away in Downtown Decatur.
We wrapped up our drinks at Taco Mac and then headed out. We got down there at about 9:00 or so and found that Leon’s Full Service seemed a little busier than Brick Store, so we decided to head to Brick Store. I LOVE that place. It has such a cool atmosphere and such a great selection of beers with very reasonably priced food. We had a great time and headed out at about 11:15 to head to Cheesecake Factory in Alpharetta for some quick late night dessert. We ate our dessert and then headed home to pass out! We had a busy day but it was awesome!
We had a great day running around with Erin!
Kara wanted to get the family together to do a dinner on New Years Day and decided to do it at our house. Alisha’s dad and family, Jason Lucas and his family, my dad and the fam, and Ann’s sister Susan and her boyfriend Curt came over for some football (okay a LOT of football), beer, wine, and food.
We had a great time watching UGA pull of a much needed win in their bowl game. This very well may be Stafford’s and Moreno’s last college game At least they both played very well. It was great to have everyone over together. We had a great dinner and a very nice time with everyone.
Thanks to all that cooked / helped with the food to feed our tribe of 18
Don’t forget to check out our photo gallery for more pictures of our Sunday at pictures.neilnatic.com or here.
On Sunday, we took our normal voyage to Andrea and Ryan’s house to spend the afternoon with them. Me and Ryan relaxed while Andrea made her pumpkin cookies… MMMM!!!!
Andrea and Ryan are eating healthy as well so we decided to go with a quick whole wheat pasta and whole wheat french bread which we put fresh garlic on. The food was delicious and none of us missed the typical white bread or pasta. It was a great quick meal.
As the night when on, we headed back to the house. We then realized that Courtney and Joey were in the city at the ice rink in Centennial Olympic Park. We called Kara to see what she was doing on our way. She was actually on call and was hanging out with her friend Warren. We met up with them at the hotel and walked a few blocks to Centennial Olympic Park. As we got there, they had just ended the skate session which was a bummer for Alisha. We made the best of it and headed to take pictures in front of the tree and reindeer that they had setup.
It was a really nice night and turned out to be a blast. Now we just need to find time to get back down there to actually skate! 
