Creatin' A Nice Day: Sunshine on My Shoulders Makes Me Happy

So, you know that game ImagineIf? The one that asks you questions like "ImagineIf Mom were an 80's movie, which would she be?" Well, today I figured out (at least for now) the answer to the question on the card, "Imagine if Tawna were a song, which would she be?" Today I went to Dad & Kelly's house for a scrumptious dinner, and afterwards we went on the now famous "after-dinner" walk (gotta walk off those pounds and that sleepiness to make room for more cookies! :) .) We walked to a park near their house and just laid down on a hill and watched the blue sky, clouds, felt the cool breeze and the warm delicious sunshine through the pine trees, and just soaked in the goodness. I realize that I need lots of outside time. Like A LOT. I don't just like it, but it really just warms me up inside and makes me super happy. I neeeed it. I felt so rejuvenated just sitting out there hardly talking and watching the breeze move through the grass, or the blue sky just get bluer and bluer. It was wonderful. That's when I "knew" that the song that would decribe Tawna would be John Dever's "Sunshine on My Shoulder's Makes Me Happy." Truer words haven't been spoken to me all day, or at least in a few hours....;) (Okay, so lots of true words at church were spoken to me, but you get the idea.) It's true though. So here are some lovely 'sunshine' pictures I've taken of late, or pictures of some other bits of 'sunshine' that have warmed my heart--fun things from my trip to Utah (Dev--I proooomise another entry soon with pics from Mom & Dad's trip out to Ohio. Promise.)

*Hiking Stewart Falls (my baby, so say's Lane) with friend Lane Farr.

Lane looks a little angry in this picture...Not sure what I did to anger him so.

Oh, that's because he was trying to make it look like this. :)

Did you know they have a tree there that proposes to you? Someone should take me there someday soon... :)

Hanging out with my sister Devon and my cutie-patootie niece Chloe. (They are just so ADORABLE! I try to smile like them and just can't quite get it. Seriously, models.)

(soooo cuuuuute!!!)

See? I try and just go crooked. I'll move up to 'fingers-in-mouth' soon. :)

Playin' ninja at one of my best friend's, Emily's, birthday party. I think there is something like a sun reflected in the mirror...? We are all stealth. (Me, Wem, Julia.)

Going hiking up to Timp Caves around sunrise with Mom and her friends Terri and Nadine. That is Mom and Terry below me on the path...

Super sunshine moment INSIDE (heart, house) as adorable Chloe so softly and gently takes my earring out and then tries to put it back in. She loves them earrings! (Such a girly-girl :). )

Fireworks are kind of like sun, only shorter lived. Still, I LOVE them! Me with some friends at the Spanish Fork Fireworks, Pioneer Day 2010.

I always feel sunshine when I go to the Temple!

Here are Em and I with a tincey-wincey bit of the Draper Temple behind us. (We got lost on the way, but don't worry...we found our way there by following the sun! Okay, cheesy. We just turned around and found the street we were looking for. Still made it!)

I also went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple last week. One of my favorites. The Celestial Room Chandelier is beautiful. And... know what I love so much about this temple? The windows! There are windows in almost every room in the temple, letting in, you guessed it--real live sunshine. :) Love it.

I also have had fun hanging around outside with my cool family!

Elijah has just got SUCH an amazing fashion sense. :) I was glad I got to see Mara and Aaron and the boys while they were here visiting from Idaho.

Accomplishment: taught Chloe how to curtsy. This is how she does it. (Just crosses her legs and then sort of tries to sit down a bit. :) .)

Shakespeare makes me happy too! Here we are at the Cedar City Shakespearian Festival outside the Adam's Theatre (yes, purposely using English spelling). We saw The Merchant of Venice, which is one of my favorites, and which was AMAZING! I just couldn't stop talking about it for days afterwards. So well acted. That is sunshine or food for the mind. Scrumptious.

Remember how things outside make me happy? Like campfires and rivers and mountains and hiking and anything, really? Well, then we went to Zion's.

There is some sunshine on Dad and I's heads. We're happy. Can you tell?

Mmmmmm...the water in the Narrows turned into Willy Wonka's river of chocolate goodness! Taste testing...;)

Mom's first time in the Narrows...and we got flash flood waters. Yep, seriously. But don't worry, we hiked in an hour and half with the water looking like this...carmelly goodness... us and about 50million other people. When we heard thunder (rain on my parade) we turned around, and were actually, honestly, quite safe.

Coooolllld water coming in! Super cool. (This is me yelling: "ahhh!!! take the picture Ben! This water is freezing!") haha

Dad's orange socks after hiking made me happy too. :)

After all this sun, we had to have a little rain, which made me happy too because thunder storms are just cool.

This was just a cool shot of some giant rays of sunlight breaking through the clouds, which I captured from the back porch.

A few days later we had a sweeeet storm that flooded part of the backyard (and then into the basement) in a matter of about 10 minutes. (Can you tell the water is up over Dad's toes?) It was cold too.

It also brought in some lovely night skies...(nevermind the thunder and lighting that I swear hit our house later that night and fried all sorts of cicuit breakers and such. After the hit my heart would not stop pounding hard for a good 30 minutes! haha)