I came home this week to spend some time with my family – specifically my parents, my grandfather, and my brother Matt. Indirectly, my birthday happens to be today. I’m usually not big on birthdays, so being away from friends and being home was no big thing. But, I can’t tell you how refreshing it was to receive countless amounts of emails from friends and family. It’s been a welcome change.

But, in all the hoopla about birthdays, today I celebrate my parents.

To my father:
The man who epitomizes strength of character, strength of will, determination, hard work, sacrifice, endurance, and devotion.

To my mother:
For all her never ending love, caring words, bottomless well of energy, ingenuity, business savvy, making the impossible possible, and good heart.

I am forever thankful for the two of them immensely. Two loving parents who raised five sons in the way of the Lord. Two loving parents who never wavered no matter how much stress us sons have put on them, or what troubles we drug them through. My parents are the anchors that have kept us rooted in home, family, love, unconditional love, and faith, all the while trying their best to live their lives as examples we can pattern ourselves after. They have instilled in us words of truth that will never be forgotten. And by their dedication to us, they have provided us shelter, safety, and kindness at our times of need.

Our lives are in no way perfect. But, through our trials comes joy. And today, I celebrate them both. Mom and Dad, I love you both.

They treat their kids like royalty. But, little do they know we consider them saints!

On a few occasions, I tend to write hokey poems. As I said at her memorial, I get older but my poems stay the same age. This poem is dedicated to my bubbly, always happy grandmother, Momma Lew.

My Grandmother

My grandmother was famous for her cooking
She was famous for her charm
She’d bake you up some brownies
And she let you run into her arms

My grandmother could play the piano
And she could run a tight ship
On holiday’s she’d have us all sing carols
And read scripture from the Bible, all without any lip.

My grandmother loved fishing
She loved to be outside
She taught me how to hook a worm
And she taught me to appreciate the sunshine

My grandmother could tell a story
All real and good ones too
She’d tell you about treasures and ghosts
And talk about pirates who’d appear out of the blue

My grandmother lived the life
A wife, a mother, and grand kids
She loved her family with all her heart
But her true feelings she never hid.

I’ve always loved my grandmother
It seemed like she was always there
Birthdays, proms, and graduations
One person, with a smile, who seemed to be everywhere

If there’s one thing I’d want you to know about my grandmother
It’s that she was always the happiest person in the room
Her giggly spirit, her loving laughs, and honest wit
Would always brighten the darkest room

Now my grandmother’s in heaven
Dancing with family all that she can
She loved life, she loved her family
But mostly, she loved her man!

Wes, Kari, Grace, and Abby came to visit this weekend. It was so much fun. They arrived on Friday and we were able to see some small parts of the town. We ate and listened to music on the green at the Promenade, visited Charlotte’s children’s library, ImagineOn, at at Pikes, went to Elevation Church, ate at the Penguin, the Roasting Company, and enjoyed our last meal together this morning at Krispy Kreme.

The girls are so wonderful to be around. They are always so happy, cheerful, and incredibly endearing. Grace loves to play, loves having attention, and really enjoys going outside and pushing her baby stroller. And Abby has to be the most pleasant baby ever. She hardly ever complains, loves being held, and when in your arms will just rest her head on your shoulder and look around the room so calmly. Wesley and Kari are amazing parents, and they make me hope I can someday be half the parents they have become.

They have only been gone for two hours, and I miss them already.

Here’s the video…

This video got me thinking about the importance of a father’s love. It can break you if you don’t have it, and it can make you do anything and everything if you do have it. I’m so blessed to have the unconditional love of not only my Heavenly Father, but my real life father as well. Some aren’t so lucky.

The above video shows everything that God does for us in our everyday life. And the videos below demonstrate how real fathers properly emulate God’s love toward their family. It’s time to give thanks to the strong men in your life.

I love this movie. A great metaphor.

Acts 20:32

Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

Isaiah 54:10

Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you.

As the band Live put it…

I don’t need no one to tell me about Heaven. I look at my daughter and I believe!

Congrats, Wes and Kari!

Press play to listen to the song: Live – Heaven

When he arrived at 7:30 on Friday night, the fun began. I planned a fun filled, but no-stress weekend. That evening we ran up to Creation for dinner. If you haven’t been there, I highly recommend it. Then we rolled over to the Gallery Crawl in NODA. There, we first hit The Rat’s Nest where the Loose Lugnuts were playing. We hung there for a little bit, then checked out Dolce Vita for a bit, then rolled home to prepare for a big day on Saturday.

Saturday morning Wesley’s good friend, Brian, drove into town and joined us for the rest of the weekend. When he showed up we jumped into the car and headed over to the US National Whitewater Center, conveniently located here in Charlotte. This is a brand new facility, and it was quite impressive. We had a blast. After a short instructional, we were on the water and rafting class 2, 3, and 4 rapids. We were on the water for about 2 hours, of which Wesley and Brian spent a few minutes each outside of the boat being rescued. Ha!

After a long afternoon rafting, we bolted over to the Pengiun to refuel. Pitchers of beer, fried pickels, and one of the best burgers you’ve ever put in your mouth was just what the doctor ordered! After going home and watching a movie, we went out to Cabo Fish Taco for some dinner, then called it a night.

Sunday, we slept in then rolled over to Kenilworth Park to play disc golf – 36 holes! The first 18 were great. The last half was a bit taxing. (Thanks for Jared joining us to keep us honest on the scoring.)

Here are the photos from the weekend.
Great times, even better company! Happy birthday, Wes! Hope you had a great time.

Titles range from:
Top ten reasons to…
Pray for [insert cause] please…
Chain letters, which end something like “pass this onto 5 friends now and you’ll have good luck for the next 10 days”…
Unbelievable photos…
Poems…
Etc…

Well, last week I received three which were absolutely great.

1. The first comes from my dear friend Dawn Brinkley. The email is titled How the Phone Should be Answered.

GOOD MORNING, WELCOME TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA .
Press “1″ for English.
Press “2″ to disconnect until you learn to speak English

And remember only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you, Jesus Christ and the American Soldier. One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.

If you agree…! …keep it going.

2. The second comes from my father. He sent me an email exchange we had nearly 10 years ago. (although I’m curious if my brother Matt actually did the forwarding.)

TIME
Always in a hurry, wanting to have some time.
Can’t keep up the flurry, but can’t stop to unwind.
The bill are there, and the deadlines too;
I pray to God, what can I do.
My wife, my kids, and others need me,
But most of all, my God and I,
Just need some time, for us, to be free.

3. The third one was a simple image sent to me by my buddy, Will Riney.
This made me chuckle.

Which made me think of this little image. This one actually hits too close to home when I’m visiting my folks.

I loved Yerg’s paintings, but couldn’t see myself paying a guy $500 for something I could do myself… or almost myself. I got pretty close. I played around a few times with Photoshop’s image adjuster, then I read a few online tutorials. Today, I think I figured it out.

It still takes a bit of work in Photoshop. And, I imagine that the painter still has to do some sort of photo transfer or tracing from an overhead projector to get this on canvas. But, I’m pretty excited at getting this far.

I think I have my new family project. The photo above is of my parents. My goal is to add each one of my brothers. This should make for some incredible wall art.

Last January I wrote that I hoped to genuinly connect with more of my family and friends. I think this is something I still need to work on. But, I did make it a point to visit family and friends as much as I could. Here are the highlights.

In January I travelled to Palo Alto and San Francisco. There I met with several collegues from the domain industry, Hotkeys, Eloan, and Homegain.

The spring took me to Washington, DC to see my baby neice, Grace, be dedicated in church.

The summer kicked off with a bang, as I flew to Birmingham, AL to watch the July 4th fireworks with my brother, Matt. Then, I was off to San Diego to meet up with a few business collegues, and sneak off to visit some good friends.

The very next week, I flew back to San Francisco to attend the Inman conference. (Wow! Was the Isreali-Lebanon military campaign just this summer? Seems like years ago.)

In August, I snuck away for self-serving vacation through the Carolina country and mountains. It was awesome! I highly recommend taking the backroads throught the South Carolina upstate, and the North Carolina Blue Ridge Parkway. Maybe this year, I’ll take the trip during the fall foliage!

In Mid-August I attended my cousin Nikki’s wedding in Lake Tahoe, NV with my mom and dad. I also was lucky to spend time with them and Grace at the beach on Harbor Island.

Then in the fall I was off to Clemson homecoming with my brothers, Noah and Wesley. New York City for business. And this winter, we capped off the year with a trip of a lifetime to the Grand Canyon with all my brothers and my father.

It didn’t seem like a lot at the time. But looking back, I stayed pretty busy!

Here’s all the places I visited:

San Francisco, CA
Palo Alto, CA
San Diego, CA
Washington, DC
Birmingham, AL
Harbor Island, SC
Greenville, SC
Hendersonville, NC
Asheville, NC
Lake Tahoe, NV
Incline Village, NV
Clemson, SC
New York, NY
Las Vegas, NV
Grand Canyon, AZ

God bless,
Andy

But, this illness was certainly no fun. I retreated to a back bedroom most of the weekend trying not to spread my bug throughout the family. (I think I succeeded). But, if you’ve ever had a head cold, you know how hard it is to breathe at night. I slept horribly the first few nights.

Christmas Eve night was tough. I probably only slept 3 or 4 hours. While I couldn’t sleep, I tried my hand at video editing. In the wee hours of Christmas morning, I propped open my laptop and compiled this little video which has already garnered some good praise over on YouTube on my brother’s re-post.

God bless you all this holiday season, and may this year bring you your heart’s desire.

Song – Be Still, by Steven Curtis Chapman

Click here to see the full photo stream.

As I said in my previous post, my father, my brothers and I just returned from the Grand Canyon. It was a blast – truly a trip for the ages. The trip was meaningful for two separate reasons. One, it was my father’s dream vacation. He’s always wanted to visit, and he’s always wanted to take a trip with his sons. To add to his delight, we took the back roads, ate in small dives along the way, and drank beers with the locals in bars most people would be scared to walk into to. It was right up his alley.

The second benefit of the trip is that it was a chance for all the brothers to get together outside of our hometown. (This is a goal of ours – to get together at least once a year outside the presence of our parents or our hometown.) We’re on year number two, and counting. These get togethers have been great at reaffirming our friendship, and making our bond of brotherhood even tighter. We are our own best allies. It’s important to nurture that.

So, as the trip began, we all flew into Las Vegas. We all arrived with a few hours of each other, and it didn’t take too long for us to check in at our first hotel – The Stratosphere, on the Las Vegas strip. This was as good of a place to start out as any. The rooms were only $25/night (thanks to Travelocity) and it had all the amenities you needed to have a good time in Vegas. We settled in. We hit the blackjack tables. Then took off for our first event – a helicopter ride down the Vegas Strip at night. I highly recommend this. You can find tickets online for about $60/person. And, the ride – athough short – was very fun and you get a view of Vegas that is priceless.

The next day was off to the West rim of the Grand Canyon. We setoff by 9:30am, and stopped off at the Hoover Dam to take the tour. Why not, right!?! This was totally cool, although the guided tour was about 20 minutes too long. From the Dam we headed toward Meadview, AZ. Along the way we stopped in Dolan Springs for some food and drink. This was an event. The food was failry good, but we had to walk across the street to the local biker bar for some suds. Althoug we didn’t fit in. The locals seemed to like us. Noah stepped right up to the bar, ordered drinks, then played a few songs on the jukebox which seemed to liven things up a bit.

After the drinks we were off to Grand Canyon West. This is the place which is building the Skywalk over the Canyon. The Skywalk is a U-shaped glass bridge which is cantilevered over the Canyon rim. This allows visitors to look straight down 4000 feet to the Canyon floor. Truly amazing! After a treachorous 14 mile drive down a dirt, rocky, unpaved, windy, bumby road, we made to the Hualippai Indian reservation ready for our tour. But, when we arrived we were informed we had missed the last tour of the day by 10 minutes. UUGGH!!! Before heading to our hotel we were able to get a few photos of the Canyon in the distance, but the sun was setting fast so off we went.

We checked into the Meadview Lake Motel. It was absolutely in the middle of nowhere! It was pitch dark when we arrived and it appeared as if nothing was around for miles. That night I had dreams that we were surrounded by the Sand People from Star Wars. But, when we woke we were preasantly surprised. It was a small town. But, this small town had a geogeous view of the Canyon. It was so beautiful. This is where we spent the next two days. We had dinner with the locals. Took a helicopter ride through the canyon from a nearby dude ranch. Played horseshoes. Had a cowboy sing a song for us. We caught both the sunrise and the sunset. And ontop of all this… we were the only tourists in the town. You can tell from our photos that no one else was anywhere in site.

Here’s a video my brother, Matthew, put together of the trip.

My brother, Matt, has uploaded a lot of his personal video footage to YouTube. There are several videos that include he and I as we drive into town and talk about the local businesses and beauty of the landscape. The videos continue as we drive into our parent’s neighborhood and arrive home for the holidays. Apparently this caught the attention of one of the Lowcountry Weekly’s staff writers.

When reading this I couldn’t stop laughing. I thought it was pretty intriguing to read the writer’s spin on the video clips. Having people hope for our next installment of “The Denton Boys Visit Publix” knocked me to the floor laughing. That was cute. But, now, I think we must! We must go visit Publix, and we must document the adventure for all of the great people on the internet.

After all the humor, one thing’s for sure. Video online is a big draw. Especially localized and specialized video. I’ll be posting more on this soon.

This year the kids didn’t start coming to the door until about 6:00. And by 7:30 we had over 300 kids come to our door. We ran out of candy and were forced to turn many kids away who were still circling the block. Even after we turned out the porch lights many kids were still knocking on the doors in hopes that we may have a few pieces left.

To chronicle the event, I took photos of EVERY kid who came to our door. Take a peak, and give it the page a few seconds to load. It’s well worth the look.

Update: My brother took these photos and did a short video. Check it out.

Noah and I played a quick game of cards at my buddy’s house. Played some ping pong at my crib. Wesley showed up at 11am after driving from DC starting at 4:30. And we were on the road to Clemson by 12:30. We snapped this photo right before we took off.

A 2-hour car ride later and we arrived in ESPN-crazed Clemson, SC. Before settling in to tailgate, I had to take Wes and Noah on a quick trip to the ever famous rollercoaster road. It was certainly steep, but somehow it wasn’t as fun as I remembered it being. I was driving my low-riding magnum and I was a bit too scared of bottoming out at the bottom of the hill. So, I ended up taking the hills a little too slow for excitement. But, still good fun nonetheless.

After a few hours of tailgating and being harassed by real life yellowjackets (actual bees, not the crazed GT fans), Wesley went and grabbed a ticket with his buddies, and Noah and I went off to scalp tickets of our own. I couldn’t believe it. Tickets were going for $150/seat on the street. There was no way that I was going to pay more than $50 for a ticket. (face value was $48). After battling the fans in downtown Clemson, Noah and I ventured up near the stadium and the ticket prices were still the same. I was getting a bit discouraged because Noah came all the way up from Beaufort to visit and to come to the game. And I was hoping to show him a good time in classic Clemson football fashion.

We were in the middle of all the ticket scalpers and still no economical options were available. Then, a miracle happened. A cadillac pulled up, parked, and I guess the driver saw me holding up my fingers gestering that I needed 2 tickets. He popped out of his car holding 2 tickets. Long story short – I scored two tickets on the 45 yard line for $60/each. I couldn’t believe it. Even though I paid a bit more than I expected, it was so well worth it. These were some of the best seats in the house, and Noah and I were up close and in the middle of Clemson fans for one of the best games we’ve seen in a long while.

Wes & Noah – I can’t tell you how great it was to hang out with the both of you this weekend. I can’t wait for our trip to the Grand Canyon!

Click on any photo above to see all the photos. All the game day videos can be seen at this link.

My family seems to put emphasis on giving/receiving gifts for birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and such. I’m trying to ween off the gifts, because it can be so expensive come Christmas. For me, just the thought that you remembered me on my day is enough.

But, this is a heavy time of year for gifts. September holds my birthday, my father’s my neice, and my mother’s is shortly behind on the first week of October. Noah’s b-day is in December, then we have Christmas. Then after that, there’s pretty much a holiday/event at least once a month. February – parents anniversary. May – Wesley’s bday and mom’s day. June – Father’s day and Matt’s bday. July – the 4th, Rays bday. August – Greg’s bday. September – Andy, Dad, and Grace bday. And then over and over again. This doesn’t include all the weddings and secondary family events.

I’m approaching 32 now. After your 30th birthday, you tend not to want to have any big celebrations for future b-days. But, there’s always that moment when you know your family is going to get you a gift. And, if they are going to get you something, you might as well have them get you something you want.

So, selfishly here it is…
I am ok with just a card. A hand written card. Not an e-card, not an email. A real Hallmark card that you have to use an ink pen with to write a personal note and possibly slip in a recent family photo.

If you can’t stop there, I’m always game for gift certificates. These are fast and easy. Amazon always works. I always could use something from Lowes. Those are both good options. I’m also a SteinMart fan. They actually have clothes there which fit me well.

And that about does it. I eventually would like to have a nice tux or a classic black suit to have in my closet. But, that’s something I’ll probably visit my uncle Butch for.