blame it all on my roots.

"cowboy homecoming" is a tradition that my family takes part in annually. the event is held in our hometown - pleasanton, texas. for as long as i can remember, the gossetts have always made a showing. it is held in the heat of august and always consist of live bands (country and tejano, of course), BBQ cook-offs, the cowboy gallop 5k, a parade through the heart of downtown, a carnival, and a whole lot of giddy-up-ing.

i must confess, i've missed out on all the fun these past few years and it sure felt good to be back. although nothing could do justice, below is a little re-cap via pics and video. there's something about country music and the simple life that remind me so much of my childhood--being out on the farm with 'ol ned and embracing my roots. this little town holds a special place in my heart, as it truly is the very place that my family has thrived and survived for over 100 years... and this weekend was an opportunity to give thanks and be reminded of where i came from and the blessing that pleasanton texas, williams hardware, and williams farm have been to my family.

Eli Young Concert!!! we LOVE eli young band!

i snuck in... rebel without a cause.

we were able to make friends with security and get "back stage"

next morning was race morning! i was able to take first with a time of 20:49...clearly, not the stiffest competition ;o)
when you win, they take your picture and put it in the pleasanton paper and my grandmother "dodo" used to always cut out and mail it to my brother and i...i told ned he must carry on this tradition.

Here's papa joe serving up tj's breakfast taco's - post race yet still only 8:00am.

and here's the fine chef himself--A&M flag... necessary.

and now, for the best surprise of my weekend-- they added GUINN to the farm gate!!! Dad has been wanting me to see this for months and finally, we were pulling in (just after our joyous sing-along drive) and there it is...guinn on the gate! i jumped out of the truck and said "ahhhhh take my picture take my picture" i knew guinn would be sooooo excited!" and then dad threw me his hat for special effect, of course.

i guess that's a wrap...of cowboy homecoming '09. if it wasn't for dorm move-in weekend mr. trey guinn would have been there too.

on that note, 200 students are arriving to our house- and it is an exciting time for sure!!

there's something about jellies.

my favorite shoe from childhood made a comeback last summer. urban started selling the perfect jelly-by fary tales are true. here she is-- in all her glory.

by the time i caught on there was only two colors left (white and gray). i bought both pair and am so sad that they've discontinued making these little gems!!

in my younger years, jellies were the only thing i would let my mom put on my foot and i owned them in just about every color.

so, i guess i'll just have to sit back and hope that urban realizes the greatness of the jelly and brings it on back for a round 3!!

announcing-- tucker richter (pipers bestie)

Trey and I had the pleasure of watching little tuck for a night before handing him over to his new parents, ben and mg. Meet piper's cousin and best friend!

dave was in our backyard and somehow we missed the memo.

...here i sat, inside my little a-p-t...excited about kathy griffin on larry king, while dave was having a jam session on the rooftop of trey's phd building....right out side our house.

about midnight, guinn discovered (via a facebook picture post) that dave had recorded a live acl taping. [here's the pic trey discovered of his classmate who, unlike us, was on top of her dave-game]

can you believe that?! so a little acl taping low-down....these free concert and ticket giveaways are quite secretive and low key. you have to be following the acl and klrn blog to get word of it. had we known that this was a possibility we would have done everything in our power to have been there!!
i am now following the blogs religiously and can guarantee you if an opportunity like this presents itself again, we will not miss out. hopefully, we will be redeeming ourselves in the very near future.

the difference a year makes...

musings from the "daily guinn" -- trey's private blog.

Only a year ago Julee and I were settling into Austin, Texas. At that point in time, we seemed filled with questions and short of answers. Unpacking boxes and listening to the new Coldplay album, we began trying to make sense of what our new life here would look like. I can’t help but feel an enourmous sense of gratitude for the difference this year has made. Life in Austin and at UT has been everything it promised to be and more; new adventures, a fresh approach at life, and time for self-discovery have each been woven into these first four seasons. In no particular order and certainly not exhaustive, I’ll try and list a few favorites from the previous year — Living on UT Campus and the perfect location, Food from LPC, Autonomy in my job with DHFS, Happy Hours with classmates and professors, Playing Kickball with “the whales” and making friends with Luke, News Years at the Schapperts and the friends we’ve made as result, Being invited to research with faculty, Guest lecturing for Daley, Austin Bible Fellowship, Finally taking advantage of Gregory Gym…. the list could go on forever and the real joy is not found in the bulleted points but the moments had and memories made within. To think, we were once scared to leave Baylor and all the comforts found in things known. Yes, indeed, what a difference a year makes…

beach babe pipes?!?

below you'll find a hilarious little montage of pipers day at the beach. what we soon realized is that the beach is her favorite place on earth so far...her natural habitat, if you will. she just couldn't get enough! the only draw back was that she has white hair and super pink skin which made her highly susceptible to sun-burning...and we sure heard if from quite a few passer-byers. regardless, she maximized her beach play time and literally cried each time we would take her back to the condo. Once in the condo, she would just sit by the window and stare out at the ocean. oh, litle pipes.

and what you may not have known, is that pipes is all-hair...and looks like a little rat when wet ;o)

galvy

destination galveston island.

good friends, good food, good times!

"GET to know me"

a while back people were jotting down 25 random facts about themselves and posting it on the fb. i started a little word document of random facts about me and the guinn but never actually published it. i came across it today and, for whatever reason, decided it was blog worthy. so here you go...a little insight on guinn (written by myself):
-I am a master at pull-ups and do not go to the restroom or shower without doing a set of 10.
-My wife is extremely jealous of my mad pull up skills
-I have a fascination with Europe and desire to someday “back pack” it for a straight month
-I understand and get people in a way that most people do not
-I must wear sunglasses outside even if there’s full cloud coverage
-I will dance anywhere, anytime, any place and normally attract an audience
-I love God first, Julee second, and piper an extremely close third ;o)
-When I sleep at night I have to pull the sheets over my exposed ear because… well I’m not really sure why.
-I love classic clothing and try to stay away from the trends
-I want to own a porshe 9-11.
-My favorite thing to make and eat is breakfast tacos
-I cut my own hair and haven’t paid for a haircut since I was 16.
-I could be a legit runner but have no desire or motivation to go fast
-I’m pretty much against watching a movie I’ve already seen
-I like to have an open mind and work at accepting others for who they are
-I love the history channel
-I like to save my money but when it comes to travel it’s worth the expense
-People give me energy and i thrive on asking them questions and listening to their answers

and for jules:
-I tend to be extreme about most things in life...it's all or nothing/go big or go home for me
-I have a slight obsession and fascination with globes and just love seeing the whole earth at once.
-I love to set goals and dream about all the many things we can do in this life...and often feel overwhelmed that life is too short to accomplish them all.
-I like knowing what's "going on" locally, nationally, and globally
-Going to Kenya changed the way I view the world and view America and if I am blessed with children I would like to provide them with that experience as soon as they’re old enough to understand it.
-No one could possibly make me laugh harder and enjoy life the way I do than trey guinn
-my running career will not end without running a marathon under 3 hours
-piper has brought amounts of joy to our lives that I never thought possible
-I tend to be a cynic when it comes to politics and get pretty frustrated when people try to argue their view points. There needs to be more respect and less ignorant babble.
-my mom is one of the strongest and most talented individuals that I know
-if I had to live in one city for the rest of my life, I would choose Austin Texas.
-I have four brothers that I would do anything in the world for
-I dream about being a mom (when the time is right/His.)
-I had “a moment” on the dance floor at our wedding where I realized that my life had reached a complete state of happiness. I’ll never ever ever forget that moment.
-trey and I have frequent dance parties in our living room and it is a priority that in our next house we have a room dedicated to dancing.
-Trey cuts my hair better than most hair stylist.
-music is magic…and I don’t go a day without it
-i have a small insecurity of feeling too short when in a “standing” group convo.
-some people call me mighty mouse because I like to take control in most situations
-I’ve always wished that I was in the broadcasting business to some capacity. Perhaps a talk show (Regis and Kelly style?)

a tribute to our four-fathers...

this father's day we were able to make a trip to san antone and spend time with each of our fathers!! [3 out of 4 joyous occasions pictured here] first stop was dinner with the schwarz fam at j. alexander's [pictured below]. mom on the left with an arm out for our missing bro timmy- who is currently working in the great state of Utah. tim to my right and matt to my far right.

My oldeset brother tj, who is now a father too, hosted a BBQ for papa joe and all his wonderful children ... on our left we have matt and mindy up top, teej and meliss down below, the favorite child there in the middle, pappa joe holding his grand-daughter- lila ann...sweet-pea/bebe (still working out the grandma-name kinks) and then of course uncle aaron and guinn.

below you'll see bud and trey! trey's birthday always falls within a few days of fathers day so we tend to celebrate the budman and guinn throughout the whole weekend. coco and bud took us to "the grill" in leon springs. it was quite a treat!

and below-- here we are fathers day morn celebrating in an authentic mexican way at marksmama's and rogers. roger is an incredible chef and can whip up one heck of a fiesta on demand. we ate things like menudo (yikes), barbacoa, queso, and tamales... just to name a few... and all topped with homeade salsa!

and one thing we can always count on is to never leave empty handed...they love to shower us with gifts...especially authentic clothing all the way from juahaca, mexico! check out trey's super cool tiny-top!

so out the door we went...in our sweet new outfits and off to the next party...@ the gossett's!

not pictured here (but coming soon) was a celebration with the guinn fam!

we were so thankful for the opportunity to spend time with all four families and are blessed to be surrounded by so much love!!

omb...

so, apparently, i've found everything under the sun to do besides upload pictures to our blog. but here is just a brief on the guinn-life as of late...

this summer has probably been our most enjoyable as far back as we can remember. our university appointments are 10 months of the year. meaning, this fine university is allowing us to live in their facilities and eat all of their food- even though we are not working a single hour - all summer. so, we've been waking up to coffee and news and then spend our afternoons working out, laying out, and swimming at gregory gym. i love the college life! much more now than my own college life, because, now, i do all the same things except the only classes i take are P.E.

in spite of all the fun, trey is taking required statistics courses and is working on different research projects within his department.

as for piper, she has taken to running. apparently, she is a sprinter and only knows one speed -full blast! i take her on a mile jog most days. it's been 105 degrees around here so it's hard to get much exercise done outdoors unless it's before 8am or after 8pm. but, she's a good little runner and absolutely loves it.

that's pretty much all that's going on. running, swimming, and hanging out with friends in atx.

oh, and i may or may not have watched 12 straight hours of mj coverage yesterday...and taught myself the thriller dance...and had a karoke session in his honor. i know he was kind of crazy and all, but he was quite the musician /performer/entertainer...and will be missed.

until something more interesting comes along,

the guinns!

happy five, guinn!

cancun, mexico

seaside, florida

lake travis, atx

great rift valley- nairobi, kenya 

st. tropez, france

zermatt, switzerland