It really has been #100happydays!
For our finale, we asked viewers to send us photos of moments that truly warmed their hearts. It was a tough choice because all the photos made us smile, but these really made us happy.
Since TODAY began using the happy hashtag back on July 1, we have been highlighting a happy moment each day for more than three months on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. What kicked off with Natalie Morales celebrating the World Cup in Brazil with soccer fans on Day 1 has also called out super cute baby animals, Al Roker's socks and plenty of heartwarming moments in between from not only the TODAY anchors but from you, our TODAY family!
The #100happydays movement started with Dmitry Golubnichy, 27, who created the project as a personal reminder to be thankful for all the good things in his life. The hashtag quickly took off, and by the time TODAY joined in, nearly a million people were keeping track of their happy moments the same way.
As we draw to a close — #Day100 comes on Oct. 8 — we wanted to take a moment to relive some of our favorite moments from the past 100 days.
The most-liked #100happydays moment on Facebook came on #Day60, starring TODAY's very own Al Roker as he danced with singer Ariana Grande.
The most popular happy days moment on Instagram was also one of the most moving: Halfway through the challenge, on #Day50, Kristin Kapr Nutter shared this beautiful photo of herself in the hospital with her newborn baby (inspired by the makeup-free photos Savannah Guthrie shared of herself with baby Vale).
"I was in the middle of chemo for breast cancer when my daughter Harkin was born," she wrote of the photo. This beautiful image became even happier when we learned the wonderful news that Nutter is now cancer-free.
Brave families were a big theme over the last 100 happy days. One of our favorite photos came courtesy of TODAY viewer Ariane Grabill, who submitted this shot of herself with her then-3-year-old son Aiden, during his treatment for cancer. Yet again, this family taught us about happiness: Aiden finished his treatment in October, and has had clean scans since then. And the day after we posted this photo, he celebrated his 5th birthday: "We are so thankful for another birthday to celebrate," his mom told us.
One of the most popular happy days moments we posted on Twitter still makes us smile — #Day84 paid tribute to Elephant Appreciation Day with a photo of this super cute elephant!
Babies were also a common theme during these 100 happy days. In particular, we couldn't stop drooling over Savannah Guthrie's baby, Vale. And seeing her with Matt Lauer — well, this picture on #Day46 really made us happy.
We had quite the TODAY baby boom this summer, and we also couldn't get enough of Carson Daly's new arrival, baby girl London Rose.
Sometimes, finding a happy moment was a way through the sadness. After the death of Robin Williams, who brought us so much laughter and happiness during his life, we wanted to celebrate him by remembering all the laughs he brought to TODAY. And you wanted to remember him this way, too: Over 78,000 people liked this throwback moment on Facebook for #Day43.
All of our fans and followers make us happy, but we just loved these two, who decided to celebrate their 51st anniversary with TODAY.
Thanks for playing along with us, and we hope these moments made you as happy as they made us!