July in Instagram Photos

It's hard to believe how many activities can be crammed into a month, or how some things from the beginning of the month seem like they were from so long ago.

Unlike other years, Mark and I had a very relaxing Fourth of July. We spent the day at Rogers Community Auction. In the evening, we cooked a couple local, grass fed steaks and we grilled them at home. They were delicious.

During my birthday weekend, I spent the afternoon with my college friend Lauren, who I rarely get to see nowadays. We were supposed to go to Sandcastle, but then things happened, so we opted for the local wave pool instead.

We got to hang out, so that's all I could really ask for. I hadn't seen her since my wedding last October. Yikes.

My dad got me a birthday gift that he ordered in May, yet it still didn't come in until this past weekend. He was teasing me about it every time I saw him. I found out over the weekend he got me a limited edition Nightmare Before Christmas cuckoo clock. Pretty dang cool.

It kind of relates to my wedding, but that's a whole other story.

Another birthday gift was Big Red, Biggie for short, that Kim got me. Thanks to her, I'm now officially a pet owner! Ha. He's actually pretty cool and low maintenance, so he's probably the perfect pet for me right now.

I got to see my cousins, who are in from Florida. We went swimming and went to the mall to hang out. And we played with the Party Party app.

How was your month?

June in Instagram Photos

I've always loved taking photos, ever since I was a kid. I've had disposable cameras, Polaroid instant cameras, and later, digital cameras and my trusty DSLR. So when I got a smartphone for the first time last year, the first app I downloaded was Instagram.

I hope to post more on Instagram, but for now, let's look at the highlights from the last month:

I got my first journalism award! It's from a paper where I no longer work, but they were nice enough to frame it and send it in the mail to me. :)

I finally got to try out a new brunch place with a friend. She was actually in town that weekend from Portland, Oregon for a job interview, and turns out, she got the job! So she's moving back to Pittsburgh later this month.

Who can resist a good cow butt? I passed this scene on the road while I was driving back from an assignment. I turned around and pulled over to get the shot. Maybe a little pathetic, but I was safe about it, right?

While Mark and I go to Pirates games a lot, this will probably be the only games I went to with my mom, dad and sister. Couldn't resist the inevitable mom selfie.

Besides the photos themselves, I'm kind of obsessed with creating new hashtags. Lame, right? But it does help organize the Instagram photos a bit. For instance, as often as we can, Mark and I post a Pirates game selfie. I tagged it under #obligatorypiratephoto and now I have a slowly growing collection. Also, earlier this year, I documented every Lenten fish fry meal we ate with #pghfishfrytour2014. I love exploring different fish fries in the area. It's such a big deal in Pittsburgh that there's a Google map listing them all.

If you use the app, what kinds of photos do you tend to post onto Instagram?