It's a miracle.

I've spent the past week of my life in total and utter bliss. Eight nights with my favorite person in the whole world and his wonderfully loud and genuinely fun to be around family in tropical paradise. I was quite possibly the happiest I have ever been in my entire life. And that's no exaggeration. Just pure, brutal honesty.

Unfortunately, the exceptional state of bliss caught up to me when it came time to head back to the mainland. Reality picked me up and threw me into a massive depression immediately upon leaving the magical world of Oahu. Nothing like cold, dark, dreary rain to completely counteract the massive overdose of vitamin D that drips from the sky over the Hawaiian islands like liquid gold.

The one upside that I can find is that I actually succeeded in losing weight on vacation. I didn't allow myself to go hog wild just because I was on vacation. I watched what I ate and drank almost nothing but water. I also spent nearly every waking moment staying active -- spending the entire week walking, swimming, and snorkeling.

And you know what??

It worked.

Yesterday, our first day back in the "Great" NorthWest, I woke up and walked to the scale. Preparing myself to accept reality I looked down at the number flashing up at me. Not believing the blurry version of what I was seeing, I grabbed my glasses from the bathroom counter and tried it again. As I stood on the scale looking at 193.0, a number I haven't seen in years, I might have let out an audible squee. =) I've done it -- I actually lost weight on my vacation!

To celebrate, here's a few (okay, a ton) of my favorite vacation photos that conveniently double as updated weight-loss progress photos: