life according to instagram

tanner entered the iPhone world!

first iPhone pic

fall leaves preparing for christmas

too lazy to plug in my laptop charger

me & esther

rocco wearing giant scuba fins

the highlight of our weekend was saturday when tanner and i got to relive our "falling in love moments" - working together at a restaurant of course!  tanner bussed tables saturday night while i served tables.  it's funny because when we were working at pizza factory, we both could only dream of a life that did not include pizza factory.  but i can't lie, after saturday night, i kinda miss those days.

saturdays at our house

most of our saturdays are spent like this - even though it was perfectly perfect weather outside today, we could barely move from the couch.

and even though we love our lazy saturdays, we were excited erica & alex gave us something to do in the evening and a reason to get off the couch.  

we saw this idea at smith's to make a nose out of the stem and couldn't resist.  and good job tanner for making it turn out so well!  and of course, no pumpkin carving event can pass without me mentioning the time my brother threw up inside his pumpkin while wearing gloves only meant for snow using a big stirring spoon to dig out the pumpkin guts.  that will probably be my favorite halloween memory for a long time.  

i'm so excited the holiday season is upon us!

food dishes and heat dishes

and yes i am one of those girls who blogs about food.  in fact, a couple of weekends ago when tanner and i were having one of our recently common "what should brighton do with her life" conversations, we decided i should do something with food since food seems to be my passion at least when i am eating.  anyway, tanner is officially a grown-up.  he is officially a 9-5er, officially a commuter {which i guess he has been that for a while now}, and he is officially for the first time ever not being paid hourly {go tanner!}  tonight, to celebrate his adultness, we went out to pizzeria 712, our very favorite place to eat in this whole world so far.  it may even be worth traveling all the way to utah for and definitely worth making the short trip to orem.

and of course i instagrammed {@britejoan}...and i do have to admit i'm feel a little bit like a social networking crazy person right now blogging my instagrammed photos all in one night...

it was the best mac&cheese, the best caprese and the best butternut squash pizza. is your mouth watering yet??

now we are back at home - i should be grading and planning for tomorrow, but instead i'm blogging and watching 30 rock on netflix in the glory of the heat dish on our couch.  and yes, it is unfortunately and fortunately that time of year again when the air in our house begins to cost $8 a day - thank you electric heating! but really, we love you heat dish.

iowa day 4: madison's birthday and the last of photos

are you sick of iowa yet?  well, i'll be brief.  sunday was madison's birthday - she's 19!  {what???? how did this happen??}  we were excited to be there to celebrate her actual birthday with her seeing how this rarely happens when you live 1200+ miles apart.  we went to church in the morning, test drove my neighbor's subaru into the middle of no where, ate my dad's annual sunday brunch as a family, went to mcfarland park for more food and hide-and-go seek in the prairie {i know, so iowa}( my family goes here for my little sister and grandmother's birthday every year - can you tell my family is tradition-oriented?), and jumped on a late flight back to utah.  we were sad to leave and very sad to land in near-winter weather, especially when we found ourselves lost in a gigantic parking lot looking for our car (literally).  farewell, iowa!  we will be looking forward to seeing you again in december!

here's more pictures, hope you enjoyed my quad-rilogy {is that even a word?}

one thing i love about iowa is that if you drive 5 or 10 minutes in literally any direction, you will be in the middle of nowhere

iowa day 3: more food, nature, fun fun fun

1. blue note lemonades, hot chocolates, salads, sandwiches and soups @ stomping grounds and trips to the cupcake emporium where madison, davis, and sadie all work (have you noticed that all of my trips tend to revolve around my food?)

2. nature walk in the forest behind berrett & tina's house (and where i learned i might want to own a small dog of my own someday thanks to zeus)

3. delicious thai pineapple curry for dinner (which i will be sharing the recipe soon i promise!)

4. bowling @ perfect games (where even with bumpers, i didn't even bowl 100 - i know, embarrassing)

enjoy more photos!  (only one more day of iowa posts and then on with life we'll go!)

iowa day 2: instagrammed

the weather was perfect the whole weekend.  considering there are approximately 2.5 weeks during any given year in iowa where the weather is tolerable, we felt pretty lucky.  and better yet - it was beautiful.  i love the mountains, i really do, but i also love horizon lines that seem to extend as far as the eye can see lined with silos, trees of changing colors, and rows of harvested corn.

the first thing my students said when i told them i was going to be gone in iowa during friday's class (besides - "so that means we don't have to come to class??") was a big confused "why?" iowa is a pretty random place to visit to most people i'll admit, and while i wouldn't recommend it for your next vacation, if you ever find yourself there during one of the 2.5 weeks of tolerable weather, don't despair.

friday we:

went to the annual friday bruegger's bagels lunch bunch with my mom, aunts, and grandma (and even an uncle)

went to the ames high football game to watch my brother and cousins march in the marching band {ames high! aims high! - best high school slogan ever?}

and went "late night" shopping at hyvee for things like vegan ice cream and regular ice cream, chocolate, frozen cheese balls, buttermilk ranch dressing for the frozen cheese balls, sports drinks, flea medicine, and etc.  (thanks again dad, aka "the bank," for funding that little trip!)

and that's it and that's all and it was great.

p.s. you might have noticed that my dad has a black eye.  i forgot to mention that on day 1, he got in a little bike accident that required an ER visit and a few stitches, which left his eye black and blue for the whole weekend, which is why he will be getting a really nice and stylish helmet for christmas.