Swimsuit Season??

So my family tries to go to Bear Lake each summer for a few days to stay in a cabin and rent a boat and some seadoos, and it is always really fun.  However, one of my brothers moved to Texas a couple of years ago to go to law school so it has been hard for my whole family to get together.  This year my brother came to town for a week to visit, and instead of going to Bear Lake we decided to rent some seadoos at Pineview Reservoir, which is much closer.

Well my sister-in-law is a notorious photo taker, and she is relentless.  She takes hundreds of photos, and I usually get pretty grumpy about it, but now that she has a baby, her little girl is the object of most of her photos, so it's not as bad.

The fatty usually doesn't want their photo taken, especially in a swimming suit.  Even with the progress I have already made, I still think of myself as a fatty.  In fact, I usually think of myself as this girl here:

So today when my sister-in-law was wearing a very similar swimming suit as the one I was wearing and wanted to take a picture of us being twinners, I didn't want to.  She assured me that we would airbrush the picture to oblivion, and we'd both look great!  

This is the last picture that was taken of me in a swimming suit.  This was our Bear Lake trip in August 2010, and as you can see, I did not want my photo taken.

On the left is a different sister-in-law than the one that takes photos, and on the right I am trying to hide my obese body.  It was shortly after this picture was taken that I started taking dieting seriously.

This is the picture that was taken today.  I'm on the left, and my sister-in-law is on the right.

First of all, look how much happier I am!!  I forget how far I've come until I see pictures.  I should look at pictures more often, not only to remind myself that I've done a good job, but also to motivate myself to keep going.

I'm happy to see the difference in my legs.  In the first picture, they are just shapeless masses of fat, whereas in the second picture, you can see some definition from all the running I've been doing.  You can also see the areas that need improvement.  My quads can use some major work.  My arms look much better in this photo than in the first, but I happen to know from my rock climbing trip last weekend that my arms are weak and could use a lot of work.

I've done well, but I've got a lot of work ahead of me.

Today I'm thankful for the awesome day I had today at Pineview.  It was great to have my brother home.