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!

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!

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.

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.

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

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 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

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!

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.