Thanksgiving with Mom and Dad

I can't believe Thanksgiving already came and went! Michelle and I were fortunate enough to have my parents come out and stay with us for a week and a half. We had an amazing time with my parents. We had an amazing Thanksgiving dinner, thanks mostly to Michelle and my mom and dad, and had a lot of fun visiting sites around DC. This picture is of us behind George Washington's mansion at Mount Vernon. This is me doing the one and only thing that I did to help make Thanksgiving dinner: mash the potatoes.
Michelle made the biggest, most delicious rolls ever!
Mom prepared the Turkey.
Michelle and Mom made these delicious little turkeys.
Us crossing the bridge to get to Theodore Roosevelt Island.
Me and my parents on the bridge.
Michelle and I walking to the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial.

Mom and Dad looking at the 9/11 exhibit at the Newseum. The Newseum is one of the most amazing places to visit in DC, we all highly recommend it. This is what remains of a 360 feet antenna that was on top of the North Tower.
After seeing everything in the Newseum, I couldn't wait to test my skills as a news anchor.

Mom and Michelle on the balcony of the Newseum. The US Capitol and the Canadian embassy are behind them.
Michelle and I at the Ne.





My mom went to Michelle's class with her one day and helped her out in her classroom the entire day. They both had a great time and my mom said she can't wait to volunteer in the classroom the next time she is here. The kids all really enjoyed having two Mrs. Wallaces in the classroom.
Michelle reading to her first grade class.
We went to a Wizards game at the Verizon Center. The Wizards pulled off an inredible comeback and won in overtime, we picked a good game.
Michelle and I from near our seats.
Michelle and my parents outside of George and Martha Washington's tomb at Mount Vernon.
The amazing view of the Potomac River behind George Washington's Mount Vernon.
Me and my parents.

Major Milestone: 50 miles

Yesterday morning I went on a bike ride with two guys. I had taken a couple days off to rest since biking in to work three days straight at the beginning of the week, so I felt that I had an opportunity to really push myself and find out where I was at (in terms of physical fitness). So we went for a 50 mile bike ride, and it was a much more challenging route than anything I had ever done before. There was about 10 miles of hills (essentially all up-hill, until we turned around of course). The two guys I went with were able to do it so much easier than I was, it just showed me that this sport is an amazing sport where - like running - you can always be motivated to improve, get stronger, and increase your endurance because your main competitor is yourself! Cycling is a lot like running in how mental it is.

Anyways, I am proud to say I went on a 50 mile bike ride (with lots of hills, lots of wind, and in the freezing cold...so under more ideal circumstances the effort I expended could equate to a longer ride possibly). The picture is from my GPS watch which tells you EXACTLY how far you have gone, how fast you are going (MPH), how many calories you've burned, and since it is GPS it even shows a map of where you have gone. The bottom right shows 50.12, that is how many miles I went. My total miles biked this week was 134.72.

Go Kart Racing

My Elder's Quorum from church had an awesome activity today: go kart racing. These go karts were really hard-core, it was not like the go karts that I used to ride at the family fun center growing up. Before they let you race, you have to change in to a racing jumpsuit and this guy from a foreign country gives you a pretty long explanation of the course and how to race. These go karts seriously went really fast. The course was really fun too, and I must admit that racing in go karts that actually went really fast and racing on a course that was a bit longer and more complex made it significantly more challenging than the go karts at the family fun centers growing up. It was really a lot of fun.

Grand Slam: 113 Miles

As I mentioned last week, I was going to try to complete the 'grand slam' and ride into work 4 times this week. I didn't have work on Thursday (Veteran's Day), so in order to ride in 4 times a week I would have to ride in three days in a row (Mon, Tue, Wed) and then finish it up on Friday. I had never ridden in three times consecutively before, and the ideal way to ride in 4 times a week would be to do it Mon and Tue, rest on Wed, and then ride in on Thu and Fri, but that wouldn't work this week. I really wanted to go for the Grand Slam though this week so I decided to just go for it, I would never know if I could do it if I didn't try!

So I did it. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, and I am really glad I went for it. It makes me think that it won't be that hard to eventually move up to riding in 5 times a week (that would be everyday). I decided to wear my GPS watch that I used to use when I was training for long-distance running and I measured exactly how far my round trip commute is. My round trip (that I ride each day) is 28.23 miles, thus making the grand total of miles that I rode this week 112.92 miles. Next week I will do Mon Tue and then Thu Fri. After a few weeks of riding in 4 times a week and my body gets accustomed to the increased mileage (its a jump of 28.23 miles), I think I will be able to go for the 'clean sweep' and ride in every day. I am not sure why I use sports metaphors to refer to the number of days I ride in to work....I think its just fun.

These are pictures from my ride in yesterday morning. It was the lowest temperature yet that I have ridden in to work in. It was low 30's, but with my new winter gear and the fact that I was working pretty hard, it really didn't even feel that bad. There was frost on the grass....wow...didn't think I would be seeing that so soon! I am really not planning on letting the cold weather slow me down. I have gotten the proper winter gear and I am ready for whatever the winter can throw at me.

Another Lengthy - But Exciting - 'Catch-Up' Post

One of our goals is to blog more frequently, because then we wouldn't have to write such long blog posts and write about so many different things at the same time. So, in other words, this will be another 'catch-up' post like the last one.

October 19th was our 3 year anniversary. We celebrated by going out to our favorite restaurant. Shortly after we got married Michelle made a book for me with 101 reasons why she loves me. Ever since then, making a list of reasons why I love her has been something I've been meaning to do so on our anniversary I finally gave her a list of 101 reasons why I love her. I also included a quote by Dr. Seuss that I stumbled upon that accurately describes how happy I have been since meeting Michelle: "You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."

Shortly after our anniversary was Halloween. The very first time Michelle and I saw each other was on Halloween, 2006, in a preparation class for the Washington Seminar program we were about to embark on. That makes it very convenient to calculate how long ago we saw each other for the first time (4 years ago on Halloween). We had a very fun Halloween here in DC. The weekend before Halloween we went on a walking haunted ghost tour through Old Town Alexandria with another couple we are friends with. Our guide was very much an enthusiast of ghost stories and made the tour very interesting. His firm belief in the stories he was telling us made it fun, but Michelle and I were a little skeptical of some of the stories. Nevertheless, it was very informative and educational (there is a lot of Revolutionary War and Civil War history in Alexandria) and a great thing to do for Halloween. This is a picture of us in front of one of the buildings that one of the ghost stories was about. Thanks again Mike and Chelsea for inviting us to go with you guys on the haunted ghost tour!

On the weekend of Halloween, we helped setup and run the ward chili cook-off and trunk-or-treat. We had a great time manning the ring toss table and giving out prizes to all the kids who played the game. We also tried several different home-made chilis and of course ate lots of candy. This photo is courtesy of Chance, who you can always count on to take a great picture when you really want one. Having visited Peru over the summer, we decided to dress up as Peruvians for Halloween.

In other news, I am still biking my commute to work three times a week. Since each day's commute is 30 miles, it takes a long time to get fully accustomed to the additional day's worth of mileage. In other words, it was difficult to go from two to three days a week and it is taking me longer than I expected to move up from three to four days a week. Currently, I am biking about 90 miles a week (15 miles each way=30 mile round trip, three times a week). Since moving up to four times a week would thus be going from 90 to 120 miles a week and is quite a big jump, last week I bike in 3.5 times a week. Basically, I rode to and from work 3 times and and I also rode in an additional day but took my bike on the Metro home. This was a good stepping stone to increase my weekly mileage to a little over 100 miles; and now I think I am ready to try riding in 4 times this week. I will let you know how it goes. Also, I am not planning on letting the winter season slow me down. I have bought some really good winter gear and so far, I haven’t let the cold or precipitation prevent me from even missing one day of riding. I have ridden in in the high 30’s once, and it wasn’t much of a problem at all, so I am optimistic that I will be able to ride in through the entire winter (except for when there is ice or snow).

All this biking I've been doing has helped me get to a new milestone in my quest to eat healthier and lose weight. Since I started to improve me eating habits and exercise more, I have now lost 50 pounds! I am at a weight that I never even thought would be possible when I started all of this a year and a half ago. I think I am actually at my old high school weight, which is pretty cool considering how much weight I had gained. The following is a picture of me from last summer, right before I started dieting and exercising (on the left with Honest Abe), followed by a recent picture of me celebrating Michelle's birthday at Six Flags: