Check out our photo gallery to see our family pictures or click here.
Last Sunday morning we went with Kara, Lin, and Alisha’s mom up to The Original Pancake House. Although this place is a chain, I have only eaten at one once before. Holy COW is it good! They try to use healthier ingredients, not to say it is “healthy” in the least. Their food is just flat out incredible! I had bacon pancakes, yes bacon pancakes, and holy CRAP are they good!! I added a side of delicious home fries and Alisha had a waffle and some eggs. If you have never been to one you have to go. To my local readers, the only one I know of in the area is on Windward.
After breakfast we made a quick stop at Babies R Us and then headed off to Ryan and Andrea’s house. We hung around for a bit and then headed to Andrea’s neighborhood parks to take some pictures outside. Some of those are in the photo gallery and can be seen by clicking the link above. It was very sunny (yeah i know…. hard to believe) so many of the shots were of me squinting and ruining the shots LOL.
Later on, Nathan and Sarah came over with their two lovely children for dinner and to hang out. It was a great night chilling with the DiRocco’s as always. It was good so see them again. Unfortunately their moving habits 
have us about an hour apart now 
.
Thanks Andrea for taking the pics!
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!
Categories: Andrea and Ryan, Beer, Bobby, Dan Natic, Danny and Kelly, General, Hector and Reagan, Kara and Lin, Kevin and Ashley, Phil and Krystle, Spencer
Now that we have the XC90, it is time to get some of the stuff done that we need to make it our own! The rear windows were tinted but the front two were not which drove Alisha nuts. I made an appointment with a tint place in Cumming to have them tint the front two windows on Saturday morning. I will be posting their information once I am sure that everything is well with the tint job. They were great people and I am sure everything is perfectly fine, but I want to make sure that it is before I tell my readers all about them. The only thing holding that up is that it had been so rainy and cold recently that the water used to apply the tint has not been able to dry out which is very normal process when you tint. It has been hard to not roll the windows down for these past 5 days though lol. I have intentionally avoided toll booths and going through the parking garages has been a pain because I have to pass the ticket thing and open the door to reach back LOL.
Last week, Heather had sent us an invite to head over to their house to throw a little surprise party for Jarrod with a few of our neighbors and some their friends / family. We headed over at 12:30 while Jarrod was out with Ethan to get ready to surprise him. Heather did a great job planning it and picking up lunch for us to enjoy. It worked out perfectly and Jarrod was quite surprised. We hung out for a few hours and then headed back home to get ready to go out for Kara’s birthday dinner.
Kara’s birthday is a day after mine and she wanted to head to Maggianos to grab some much needed birthday dinner! We headed up to Maggianos at Perimeter Mall with Alisha’s mom and met Kara and Lin for some dinner. As always the food was delicious and we had a great time. After dinner we were all heading up to our house to spend the night. We decided to hit Cheesecake Factory for some dessert before continuing home.
Sunday afternoon the ladies wanted to go shopping… who knew? Lin and I told them that we would go to Target with them, they could drop us off at Taco Mac to watch some football and have a beer, and then they could pick us up before heading home. It worked out pretty well I’d say. LOL
After shopping we heading over to La Casuela for some nice Mexican food before heading back to the house to chill.
It was a nice chill Sunday and a great way to wrap up the weekend.
Kara and Lin came over on Saturday to hang out and to watch the UGA vs Ga Tech game. We started the afternoon by heading over to Hobby Lobby for Kara so that she could try to pick up some decorations at like 90% off. Unfortunately they had already sold everything and we walked out empty handed. Heck… maybe that is not such a bad thing LOL.
After some shopping we headed out to dinner at a Southern country restaurant at the Vickery Village shopping center called Mommy Francis Down Home Cooking. It was a little country restaurant above Sidney’s Pizza which was pretty good. It was such a cute atmosphere and good food. If you are ever craving some country cookin’ give it a shot.
After dinner we headed home to get ready to watch the UGA vs Ga Tech game. Tech was ranked 7th in the nation and UGA was unranked Tech was looking great this year and was on target to get a nice bowl game and if the right teams lost, they had a chance at the national title game. Last year UGA was in a similar position and Tech robbed them in Athens with a stunning win… well UGA came back for revenge this year! They pulled off a HUGE win against tech at Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta to send Tech crying home. Hell yeah DAWGS!!!! Great win!!
While the guys watched the game, Kara spent the evening putting up and decorating our tree for Christmas. She also setup all of the other Christmas decorations around the house. Thanks Kara. It looks great!!! Will you come back to put them all away???? LOL
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
Dont forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of the Atlanta Gay Pride Parade at pictures.neilnatic.com or here
On Sunday morning we woke up and tried to figure out what we wanted to do. We had been talking about heading down to Andrea and Ryan’s house as we had not seen them in a while but were not sure what to do for the morning. Alisha then got a call from Kara who was heading down to the Gay Pride Parade in Midtown Atlanta so we decided to go as well.
It is no secret that Alisha and I support gay couples and believe that they should be treated equally and we figured, why the hell not? Let’s check it out. We hauled ass to meet Kara, Lin, and their friend Bobby down at Kara’s apartment. We then headed off to find parking and get a spot for the parade. We certainly underestimated the parking situation as we got down there but it all turned out fine. We had to walk several blocks to the parade but at least we got to check it out.
The parade was NUTS! There were so many people there to watch that I NEVER would have thought it would be such a long parade. We were there well over 2 hours and it was still going. There were just a ton of groups walking to support their cause and it was a good time. It was really incredible to see so many people support equality and pride for gays. While we were certainly outnumbered as a straight (pregnant) couple, but our support was certainly welcomed by everyone. It was a good time even though it was as long as it was.
Check out our link above for pictures from the parade.
After the parade we headed out to Ryan and Andrea’s house to hang out and have dinner with them. When we got there Andrea had told us that they also invited their friends Nathan and Sarah over as well. We had not seen them in a while and really like to hang out with them as well so it was a great surprise. We brought Andrea our Kitchen Aid mixer so that she could whip up some of her oh so delicious pumpkin cookies. DAMN those things are soooooo good! You just can’t stop eating them. MMMMM!!! Ryan and I took Anthony and headed out to his data center down town to grab some pictures for their website while the ladies baked away. Shortly after we returned Nathan, Sarah and the kids came over and we threw some chicken and pulled pork on the grill to get dinner started.
As always, we had an excellent time with the DiRoccos. We dont get to see them as often as we wish we did, so it is always a great time seeing them whenever we can. Thanks for having us over Andrea and, of course, thanks for the cookies… I wont thank you for the 5 lbs I’ll gain eating them though LOL
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 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!
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.
