I was tagged an age ago to do this ‘Eight photos of happiness’ post by my lovely friend Donna at What the Redhead said and as with most things these days it’s taken forever for me to get around to doing it. It is exactly as it sounds; eight photos that make me happy.

It was tricky trying to choose just eight, and I think there should be a bit of a caveat in that really this is ‘eight photos taken since 2006 that make me happy’ because I don’t have any photos from before that on my computer. I have a big box of photos from before that which I’ve never got round to putting into albums but that’s in the loft at the moment, and all the photos from my childhood are at my parents’ house. So anyway, here we go…

My Brother and Me

OK, so this picture is clearly from pre-2006 but I happened to have a scan of it on my computer. This is me and my brother Mark; I think I was about six months old so he would have been two and a half. There is exactly two years between us (our birthdays are the next day to each other) and we have always got on really well. We still do although we don’t see each other as often as we’d like seeing as he lives with his wife in Essex and we’re up here in Scotland. This photo just makes me smile and I hope my boys get on as well as we do.

Take That Reunion Tour

I took this photo of Take That in Dublin on their first reunion tour in 2006. I was a big (although slightly closet) Take That fan when I was a teenager but I never saw them live so when they got back together I couldn’t miss it. Due to a random set of circumstances I ended up seeing them in Dublin with my brother and my friend Claire. We got a really good spot near the front of the arena for the concert and had a brilliant time. This photo just reminds me of a very fun weekend. And Claire and I have been to every Take That tour together since.

Meeting Tim Minchin

This picture of me and Tim Minchin was taken in Birmingham in 2009. I was a big Minchin fan before he was a global-mega-superstar and I made a lot of friends through his fan forum. We would all travel around the country and meet up at different gigs and some of them knew Tim really well so I got to meet him quite a few times and even got to hang out backstage with him after one gig. He’s such a lovely bloke, and I love our big cheesy grins in this photo.

The Grand Canyon – Solo USA Road Trip

In 2010 I went on a three week road trip from San Francisco to Las Vegas via Los Angeles, Palm Springs, a chunk of Route 66 and the Grand Canyon. Not only was it an amazing trip in its own right, I had also met Barry just before I went and we spent the whole time I was there emailing each other every day and that was really the start of our relationship. It was hard to just choose one photo from the trip – in the end I’ve gone for this one taken at the Grand Canyon, unless you’ve been there it’s impossible to imagine the sheer scale of the place. I think I look like I’m stood in front of a painted backdrop in this photo, it’s just so unreal looking.

Playing Ukulele

This picture is from a photo shoot we had not long after we got engaged. I love all the photos from that day but we just look so happy in this one with us both playing our ukuleles (which we’ve both just started doing again after not playing for ages).

Our Wedding Day

I loved our wedding day. We had all our family and friends there, and after months of planning it turned out exactly how we wanted. I tried on lots of strapless wedding dresses but in the end I found this amazing 1950s vintage dress that I had altered to fit.

Our Honeymoon

This grumpy looking picture might seem like slightly odd choice but it reminds me of a funny moment on our honeymoon. We went on another American road trip for our honeymoon from Boston to Vermont, up state New York, Philadelphia, down the coast to Maryland and finally to Washington. A lot of our destinations were chosen because they had appeared on the TV show Man v. Food and food and drink played a big part in our whole trip.

This picture was taken outside a cider mill in Vermont. The sad faces were because we didn’t realise until we got there that in America cider is simply pressed apple juice – if you want the boozy kind then you need to look for hard cider. We soon cheered up though because they were selling fresh doughnuts and we got some amazing maple syrup there too.

Toby

I had to include a picture of Toby in these photos that make me happy and it was almost impossible to choose just one. In the end I decided to go for a recent one showing off his fantastic cheeky grin, and lovely dimples.

Gabriel

Lastly then is a picture of the newest addition to our family. This photograph of Gabe and me was taken literally seconds after he was born. At this point we were still connected by the umbilical cord and I couldn’t believe he was actually there. I don’t have any photos of Toby until after we were both dressed and cleaned up but because we were at home when Gabe was born I made sure Barry was ready with the camera as soon as he was born.

OK, so the eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that there are actually nine photographs and not eight but I just couldn’t decide which one to leave out! If you’d like to share your eight (or nine!) photos of happiness then consider yourself tagged!