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Cooper

@wcooperbayne

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And I’m will?

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Last Call

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See you later Texas

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Preseason

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I first came to Austin in 1994 to attend the University of Texas, and I fell for a city that somehow already felt like home. I met my husband here and started our family here. Six years ago I moved my parents here so I could take care of them, and Austin welcomed them the way it once welcomed me.

Our house closed today.

Ten years lived inside it, third grade through high school graduation. We chased the Hill Country, then took a wild leap and gave our boys five years of ocean in Santa Monica, then came home to these hills, and now the Smoky Mountains are waiting. We have never been able to sit still, and I love us for that.

But it was never the landscape we loved. It was who filled it. The friends who became family. Every team our boys wore a jersey for at every school, and every coach and teacher and leader who saw something in them and kept calling it forward. The live music, the pool that never got a day off, backyard BBQs & pool parties, singalongs, ping pong, darts, & the basketball court we let happen in the living room, driveway games that ran until the light gave out. Sledding down the frozen hill at the middle school. Fourth of July parades. The ice cream man. 241,797 breakfast tacos, That legendary trick or treat street. Dog walks. Rain falling on the porch.

I couldn’t choose enough photos for all of it, and I’d be a puddle if I tried. So here’s this one. The four of us, standing in an empty house that was so unbelievably full.

Here’s what I know now. A place can feel like home, but home was never the place. It’s a feeling, and it travels with you.

Five and a half years of caregiving has taught me exactly how fast the chapters go. Ours isn’t finished.

So we’re off to Knoxville, the “Scruffy City”, to live among the Smokies. Scruffy is what growth actually looks like, a little rough around the edges on the way to something better, and that is this family through every transition. We can’t wait to grow right alongside it.

Our gritty, risk taking, dream chasing Baynes, living one of our family core values: adventure.

We’re scared and excited and holding our breath, and so grateful we get to go find out.

Austin, thank you. 💖

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Twelve days.

Twelve days of hospital chairs and beeping machines. Of watching the man who raised me look small under fluorescent lights. Of praying in elevators and crying in parking lots and showing up the next morning anyway.

His body has been through it. His heart most of all. And by the grace of God, he is still here.

Today we moved him out of the hospital and into rehab. Now comes the fight back. Getting stronger, slower than he wants to, with a heart condition he’ll carry for the rest of his life.

It is scary. I won’t pretend it isn’t.

But my dad has spent his whole life as a gambler. He knows how to read the odds. And when his doctor told him what he was up against, he took the cards he was dealt and said he’d play them.

That’s my dad.

Family has always come first for me. And in a season where I am pouring everything into growing my business, these last two weeks were an interruption I never saw coming. With my mom in memory care, I am my dad’s person now. The only one. There was no version of me that wasn’t going to drop everything and be there.

Here’s what I know at 50, after years surrounded by founders and more deathbed conversations than I can count: the most important part of life is rarely the business. It’s the people. It always has been.

To my clients, thank you for your patience and grace while I navigated this scare. There’s a long road ahead. But this, right here, is exactly why I became an entrepreneur. So I could show up for what actually matters. Daughter, wife, mom, friend first. The rest, second.

To my husband and my boys: you have been my rock. The texts, the check-ins, the quiet ways you held our world together while I held my dad’s hand. I love you more than I know how to say.

And to the staff at @ascensionseton who carried us through the hardest 12 days of my life: thank you. You held my dad’s life in your hands, and you held mine too. To the team at @encompasshlth taking him next: we are so grateful. Thank you for what you’re about to do.

One step at a time, old man. We’re right behind you. 🎰❤️‍🩹

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Episode 4- Chuy’s, Austin TX

Andy- 7.5, frozen lime margarita, classic frozen margaritas
Riley- 7.9, frozen lime margarita, what a first sip
Cooper-7.5, frozen strawberry margarita, a great blend of flavors

Make tonight a great night

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So so good

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That’s a wrap! These last few years have been some of the best of my life and I am forever grateful for all the friendships and adventures. Go VOLS!🧡 Excited for the next 4 at OSU CoD❤️🦷

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Who would have thought

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Ocean Man 🌊

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adios sevilla✈️💋

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