first road trip & rock concert w/ my oldest son

Wow, where to begin, other than that this weekend was a BLAST. As most of you reading may know, I’m a booking agent for Contemporary Christian Music Artists and this weekend was the last weekend of the “Promise Remains Tour” w/ Todd Agnew, Building429 & newcomers Kimber Rising. I had yet to see the tour and just had to check it out on the closing weekend. I also know that my wife was just spent and I was feeling a bit guilty for leaving her with both of my boys while I go hang at the show, even though it’s my job. I had a wild hair to take my oldest son Nolan, now 4 years old, but my wife thought I was NUTS. I said, yeah, you’re probably right, not gonna do it! Oh about 10 minutes before I left for my trip, I changed my mind and said, NOLAN LOAD UP, it’s time for your first road trip with Daddy! We headed out on our 4 hour drive with the DVD player, IPOD, sunflower seeds, kiddos snack and a full tank of gas heading the the concert. My son was so excited. When we got there, trust me when I say, Nolan was fired up and ready to stretch his traveling legs. As we walked in to the venue he was chatting up a storm with everyone. Once he found out people’s names it was all over. Of course if you know my son, he can walk in to a room of 100 people and 10 minutes later he’ll come out knowing 99 of them. Needless to say, he fit right in with all the musicians and crew.

During the Building429 set, he just kept wanting to go front and center, so we did, hints the picture you see. He loved it! He remembered Jesse, the lead guitar player from catering earlier, and just kept looking at me over and over saying “that’s Jesse, that’s Jesse” as if he had known him for years and years. I love that about my son, he’s never met a stranger. When Jessy got off stage, Nolan ran straight over to him saying “you play guitar very good” and he went up to all the other guys telling them what instruments that they played. They were just amazed at how smart and friendly he was. As much as Nolan loves music and people, I truly think he was in heaven.

I wanted to check out my GOA artist, Todd Agnew’s set, so the girls of Kimber Rising graciously offered to hang out with Nolan. I took them up on their offer and went and checked out Todd’s amazing music and speaking set. He always has great tunes and very encouraging and thought provoking words of wisdom. Todd’s always great in what he does and didn’t disappoint this night either.

OH NO, I thought, what about Nolan? I ran anxiously back to the gym, not really knowing if Nolan had completely worn everyone out or not. Low and behold, he was just fine. He had already gone to hang out on the tour bus and was finishing up the night by playing basketball with the Building429 guys & the girls of Kimber Rising, and did I mentioned is was 10pm at night? It was way past his bedtime, but…oh well, we only live once and he was having a blast, but it was time to go. We bolted back to the hotel and crashed.

Thanks to the Promise Remains Tour for accepting my 4 year old Nolan and for such an amazing show. I can’t wait to take him back out to a show again soon, but his mom says I might want to work on getting him to bed a bit earlier next time……I said, sure honey, whatever you say (wink, wink)! I’m not sure who enjoyed the trip the most, Nolan or his Daddy. I can honestly say, I’ve never been more proud of my son and the fact that he loves people so much and he is also loved by those around him. He’s a special boy and I’m honored to call him not only my son, but my traveling buddy (aka: road dawg)!

white family photo blog w/ Kelli Trontell – Lifestyle Photographer

When I first clicked on Kelli Trontell’s Photo Blog (to the left) and began scrolling down the page admiring the amazing photo blog that she put together for her friends, clients, future clients or just those that enjoy her style of work called Lifestyle Photography. Before I made it half way down the page I had already made up my mind that, Kelli just has to shoot our family. We’ve had great family photos in the past, but I just knew that Kelli could truly capture our family and all four of our unique personalities, and that’s exactly what she did. I fully trust her from the decision of the location to the direction throughout. She just became a part of the family that day and in no way was it ever an “us and her” during the day. That truly made the day, with kids, very smooth. Her price is amazingly affordable, yet I so think she’s selling herself short for the quality and personality that you get in each photo.

I would HIGHLY recommend Kelli for any wedding, family or creative photo shoot that you may need. Check her out at www.kellitrontell.com, and take a further look at our family lifestyle shoot below or on our Flickr to the right.

THANKS SO MUCH KELLI

the whites

The Search for God & Guinness by Stephen Mansfield

I must say, the cover of this book alone truly intrigued me when my good friend Spence Smith gave me the book its release week. I also know that just having the word “beer” in the same sentence with “God” is sometimes a taboo thing for so many in religious circles. I think those that read this book by Stephen Mansfield might think differently afterwards. Check out the video below to hear in more dept about this amazing book.

I’ll end with this, as the video above will share the forward of this book much more eloquently than I ever could. When I began to read this book, I was coming back from a business trip and was in the terminal waiting on my plane. The first chapter really gets to the overall heart of the book and the founder of Guinness, Arthur Guinness, and his passion for the homeless and honoring God through helping to alleviate major concerns and issues in his community and throughout the world. I must say, from the time I started reading the book and the time I got on the plane, I was asked AT LEAST 6 times about the book. Therefore, I was able to share the gospel message with these six people by sharing the story of Arthur Guinness and the true history of Guinness beer. Not many can say that every day in our society, huh?

This book is amazing and I highly recommend it for the highly religious and…..well those not so much! Be inspired to find the more traditional ways to share God’s word with those around you that may not know him through your own community and sphere of influence, no matter what you do for a living.

Please share with me your “initial thoughts” on this the book title and then your thoughts after watching the video. I am so curious.

Chivalry’s not dead

Well, as you can see in this picture, that boys and girls are quite fond of each other at an early age. This is my son, Nolan, and his little friend Kailey. There are not a lot of girls that he asks about more than Kailey. For some funny reason they’ve just always gotten along amazingly well. I guess there is no better time than now to teach him how to treat a lady, right? Honestly, I think he’s already off to a good start.

My parents divorced a very early age and we mostly lived with our Dad until our teen years and I honestly didn’t see a lot of great examples in my day of how to treat a lady, with the exception of my grandpa and/or uncle. I definitely knew how to hunt, fish and do household chores though, but when it came to really knowing how to treat a lady and have gentleman like manners, well, that was pretty much non-existant. Until…..one day came that we moved in full time with our Mom and WOW, now that was enlightening. She was much harder on us than our Dad ever was. She whipped us in to shape, to say the least.

One of my favorite stories of my Mother giving me tools to live by was at the Mall. As my brother and I were about to walk in to the Mall with our Mother we both noticed that Mom had just stepped to the side before entering the door. My brother and I both paused with pensive looks on our faces trying to figure out what is the world was wrong with her. It took us a moment, but atlast, I GOT IT! She wants us to open the door for her without her asking. Wow, it’s amazing how that memory is just burned in my mind for life. She always taught by example and it has stuck with me as of today!

My mother constantly taught us that the little things in life that you do for a lady will not only make you look good as a gentleman with true etiquette, but will mean so much to someone that you may know or may not know. Thank God that she instilled those thing in to me, along with cleanliness, manners and the importance of style, or I may not have landed the most beautiful and talented woman on the planet (ie: my wife). My brother and I may have just stayed the little redneck boys that we were, (not that there’s anything wrong w/ fishing and hunting and playing in the mud every once in a while) and not really understanding what it meant to treat a lady right, with the utmost respect and honor that they truly deserve.

Thanks Mom for taking the time and the sharing the tough love to ingrain in your little boys minds manners, style and cleanliness, but most of all “how to treat a lady.”

COMMENT………
What are some of the ways that you’ve learned the importance of how to treat a lady? Ladies, what are ways that you like to be treated?

Kings of Leon…all hype or pure rock?

Are Kings of Leon all hype or pure rock and roll icons?

I had the opportunity to go to their recent concert at the Sommet Center here in Nashville, TN at the last minute thanks to my good buddies Brandon Edmonson and Brian Elliott. I had just recently been turned on to the music of Kings of Leon. I wasn’t real sure what to think of these guys at first. I knew the lead singer, Anthony Caleb Folowill had a very distinctive voice and the guitar riffs of Cameron Matthew Folowill were some of the most simple yet unique I had ever heard. I caught myself just going back in to my buddy’s office just listening when he would turn it on at the end of the day. It was a slow but worthy transition into the world of the “Kings of Leon.”

Driving to the venue that night to check out the show, I was preparing myself for what I was about to experience. Now you have to know, growing up around music all my life, I’ve been to a ton of shows and I very seldom purchase tickets at this point let alone go to free show unless it’s just something that I’m dying to see. Therefore, I was just unsure how all of this was going to pan out, but was glad to see what all the fuss was about. As we entered the venue of the Sommet Center, roughly 16,000 seat available for most concerts, there was a line to get in and people everywhere! I immediately knew, other than what I’ve seen on the Billboard charts, that these guys had a pretty amazing following and it was going to be a great show. We took our seats after the two local Nashville bands played we were ready to rock. I’ll make this story short. The band brought it, but not as I expected for an arena show. They were the most unpretentious band that I’ve ever seen play an arena. It was truly not about them AT ALL. Their stage set up was very minimal and their video screen was a wrap around V-shaped LCD screen. Very cool, but small for the venue size. The videography took getting use to, but as the show went on it’s psychadelic video production really fit the modernized 70′s feel to the music we were hearing. They also looked like they were holograms from a band that would have played Woodstock. Amazing how everything took it’s form and made perfect since to me half way through the show. I found it so amazing that a band of this stature could truly perform to a crowd of well over 16,000 people as they screamed their name and still convince me that it truly was “all about the music.” Well done guys!

I can now say, I am a true Kings of Leon fan and would gladly buy a ticket to their next show when they come to town and will definitely click “buy album” on their next itunes release. My answer to the initial question is that they are “pure rock!”