. life in instagrams .

. seriously, the iphone has changed my life . photo life for sure . i love being able to whip out the thing and grab a quick pic . i'm going to try to get some of these photos printed just to see what they look like . anybody done that with instagrams ?

. but, the phone changing my life . okay, words with friends, this game is addicting and sometimes i just have to quit playing, so i can STAY ON TASK ! :) super fun to play though, except this game . it was hard ! i loose a lot, but i still like to play .

. empty water bottle .

. yes, i wrote the date, not my name, on the tag of my pants . okay, i'm not weird, at least not for this reason . i did this because i had bought different brands at different times and wanted to see how fast they faded . anyway...it does seem kinda dumb now, BUT the best part about this story has nothing to do with my faded yoga pants and everything to do with the fact that the faded yoga pants that haven't fit in a while, fit now ! and i wouldn't have remembered how long it had been since i'd worn then if i hadn't dated them like they were corn going in my freezer at the end of summer !

. ry took this pic of reed running from him . typical .

. the boys are obsessed with anything fun on my phone so they think my scrabble game on my phone must be wild fun because it's, well, on my awesome phone, so they wanted to play the game in real life . let me just say, not so fun .

. getting my hair done at salon rage .

. visiting my friends em and gibbs . this picture melts my heart .

. em's cool home .

. em's cool dining room decor .

. let me just stop a moment and say how brilliant gibbs is ! this kid can say just about anything . he's so verbal !! he's not quite 17 months old and can talk like i've never heard a child do before . so, he's a genius, for real !

. whipping up some stir fry .

. mixed with a little quinoa . my new favorite grain .

. me and brooke, instagraming together .

. at a horse sale . we choose this over pedicures . why ? we decided it was because we are maturing and family is more important than our nails getting done . that didn't stop us from whining to family the rest of the time together about not getting our nails done .

. tiny towns have the coolest stuff .

. morning coffee .

. getting ready to go trail riding .

. good times .

. and more to come after bit, this just gets me up through sunday .

:)

. still celebrating .

. this is the longest birthday ever . it's been awesome . today i got a birthday gift delivered to my door and i got to go out with my friend shea for lunch on her birthday . on my way i saw the statue of liberty . yep, in iowa city .

:)

. that would have been the shot of the day had i not taken this one !

. shea has connections and took me out to the awesome wilderness studio, and i had the privilege of meeting dick, the amazingly talented owner and photographer ! he is also the owner of this awesome car that we got to sit in .

. shea and i had a great time .

. the entire day was amazing . i love getting to know new friends, learning more about the world of photography, driving along the beautiful countryside during this fall season and continuing to celebrate being 32 . how long can i make this last !?

. all photos taken with p & s .

. wildcat den .

. monday beth and i took ryan, reed, andrew and seth to wildcat den state park . the weather was just perfect, not too hot for hiking and not too cold for splashing around in the creek .

. andrew found a frog, surprise, surprise !

:)

. these fellas were quite the climbers . although there were times when it would have been nice for maybe their dads to be there or something . it's hard to watch when they are on the brink of what looks like death to us .

:)

. i think the creek was everyones favorite part though .

. this is what seth did the entire time .

. iowa beach ...icky .

. boys don't care though .

. we're definitely doing this again .

. falls park .

. sunday afternoon while in greenville our family took us to the beautiful falls park . spectacular ! this park is downtown greenville and it has a waterfall . such a combination of city and nature i have never seen .

. amazing flower beds .

. and the falls !

. this place had so many families, friends, dogs, kids, lunches...with a baloon here and there, geese, blankets spread, frisbee throwing . it reminded me of children's books i've read . or maybe a where's waldo, just not so crowded .

. sat down to take it all in for a few minutes .

. i love seeing new places like this . and when i'm there i'm always amazed such a place existed and i never knew...it makes me wonder what else is out there . what else should i see ?!