Best of 2008

Our fondest memories from 2008...



2008 started out with big news... we're having another boy! What better way to celebrate than with a wonderful week in Hawaii. We flew out for Eunice's childhood friend Jerry's wedding, and stayed at the wonderful home of Susan and Steve.

Then it was back to life in the Bay Area: We continued to bond with our community of friends with kids, including hikes with Grace and Alonzo, date night swaps with the Wangs, trips to the zoo (many zoos!), museums, and visits from our old friends Brian, Cora, and Spencer.

Our next big trip was in March to Venice Beach-- another "Kibbutz" weekend with Jesse, Eileen, KB, and Lee. Po Po (Eunice' mom) came out for a solo weekend with Spencer, a welcome break for the expectant parents.

We spent Easter in Dallas, visiting Jennifer and David and agonizing over the right career move for Ryan. He came back, gave notice at SAP after 3 1/2 years, and joined a startup called Appirio to run product management. An exciting switch... no more trips to Germany! Ryan's other big milestone was his 33rd birthday, celebrated with a great dinner in the Marina and a romantic lunch with Eunice in Half Moon Bay.

April was our final month with 1 baby: a baby shower for us, a baby shower for Jesse and Eileen, some quality time at the lake, and lots of preparation for Spencer.... his first real bed and training for being a big brother. Here's our last dinner before Tyler arrived...

And then we were four! Tyler Lin Nichols was born at 6:51 on May 16 through natural childbirth (no epidural for poor Eunice) after 2.5 hours of labor, only 30 minutes after arriving at the hospital - we barely made it in time! Tyler's first moments included a wonderful day at Sequoia Hospital with mom and dad, meeting his big brother, and meeting all of our family in the area.

Back at home, Tyler had his first real bath , time hanging around the house, and lots and lots of weight gain. The big question: can you tell Spencer and Tyler apart?

It was so special to have Terry in town for the summer, plus Jennifer and David and all the grandkids! We spent a weekend with the entire Lin family in Napa. (Tyler's first trip @ 1 week!) Saying farewell to Eunice' mother at the end of the summer was tough... goodbye Po Po!

Spencer had a pretty good summer himself, for a 2 year old: his first backpacking trip with Adam and Ryan in Desolation Wilderness, a visit to a fire house, joy rides at the supermarket, pajama parties with Gaby and Theo, massive "mega bloks" creations, his first sleep away with friends, singing and hanging out with his little brother, concerts in Central Park, time at the beach, exploring the tide pools, time in the kiddie pool, time at the zoo, time at the farm, foosball and pizza at Dad's office, a very cool RC car from Juanita, and a great birthday party with our community group... complete with fireworks!

3 milestones in July: Spencer turned 2, Eunice turned 33, and our beloved Gong Gong passed away.

We ended our summer with a marathon trip: Labor day weekend with the Hills in Twain Harte, a week in San Diego for the Joyce family reunion and to see Ryan's Family, and a week in Boston and Martha's Vineyard to visit some friends and attend Jon and Alison's wedding. We came back and needed a break!

Our boys are growing up so quickly: Tyler is already rolling over, trying out his swing, sleeping at night, trying solid food .... even went on his first camping trip, with our community group at Casini Ranch. Spencer is a "big boy" in so many ways now. He loves singing happy birthday to Po Po, riding trains with his Uncle Morgan, and wearing his own backpack when we travel.

Fall arrived in earnest, starting with our church retreat in the mountains above Santa Cruz, Halloween with Cora, Thanksgiving with the Nichols, and an only-in-California sunny trip to the beach. We also worked on the less tangible things: deepening friendships, learning how to draw and make-believe (Spencer), and learning how to sit, laugh, and take a bath with his brother (Tyler).

How did it get to be the holidays so soon? To prepare, we did a family photo shoot for gifts to the grandparents, and picked out a christmas tree at Fort Mason. Then let the parties begin! The Gates, the Canadas, IDEO, and SNBC were highlights. We spent Christmas itself on a grand tour of the Bay Area-- Christmas Eve at the Hills, Christmas morning at home with Susan and Jim, brunch at Dad's place in the Marina, and dinner at Nancy's in Marin. Then it was off to a week in Lake Tahoe with the Nichols to celebrate New Year.

2008 was a year of great change, great challenge, and great joy for our family. We're finally getting the hang of balancing work and being parents of two little boys. Here's hoping for a slightly more RESTful 2009... [Though the RESTless side of us is kicking off the new year with a trip to Mexico. Oh well!]

New Year's in Tahoe

We celebrated New Year's this year with a week up in Lake Tahoe, staying at a fantastic cabin right on Donner Lake with Mike, Therese, Adam, and Rachel. We were just down the street from Grace and Alonzo's family place. Phil and Nikki also came up for a few days... Add 1 dog and 2 old college buddies / new colleagues to the mix (Bill & Chico), and you have quite a crew!

Click here for a slideshow, or see below for more...


The location was perfect, especially since it was so beautiful for most of the week. Spencer loved exploring the snow in the backyard, making forts, and throwing rocks in the lake... he even spotted a "reindeer" one morning down by the water. Not pictured is the jacuzzi under the deck, perfect for the apres-ski soak as the sun sets over Donner Pass.


We made use of the inside of the cabin as well, of course, with lots time playing with the kids, cooking/eating fantastic meals, and playing a couple of epic poker games, including a late-night game on New Year's Eve. We made it out for 2 dinners: the Truckee Diner one night and Moody's Bistro the other (Moody's had a jazz band that the kids loved dancing to, much to the chagrin of the other patrons!)



Ryan and Adam did get a couple of days in at Sugar Bowl, plus a couple of days cross-country skiing (much harder than Ryan remembers now that he's towing a 50 pound sled!). We also made it out sledding almost every day: Spencer loved falling off the sled and rolling down the hills, and Tyler seemed to be having a pretty good time as well.

Ryan was often up early with Spencer, but was rewarded on New Year's morning with a gorgeous sunrise over the lake. He and Spencer watched it from the dock-- the perfect way to start 2009!

Click here for the full slideshow...

Christmas dinner at Nancy's

We finished our Christmas day journey at Nancy's place in Corte Madera for a fantastic turkey dinner with the Barrons.



Highlights included Mimi hiding under a napkin to talk to Uncle Tom, Nancy's special gifts from Nepal, Spencer's continued crush on cousin Michelle, Tyler happy for hours in Nancy's yellow armchair, lots of puzzle time on the carpet, and Nancy playing "train" with the boys... thanks for hosting, Nancy!

Christmas Brunch in the Marina

After a low key Christmas morning in San Mateo, we headed up to the Marina for a delicious crab salad brunch with Michael and Therese. Our special guests were Jimmy, Adam's fraternity brother at Tufts, and Abhinav, Ryan's colleague out for a 6 week visit from India.



Highlights included the delicious meal, watching Abhinav make friends with Abby the Boxer, Ryan and Eunice disappearing for a 2 hour nap with the boys while everyone else went for a hike, and helping Abhinav plot his path back to San Mateo via public transit (don't worry, he made it!).

Christmas Eve at the Hills

We continued our annual tradition of spending Christmas Eve at the Hills with Uncle Bob, Aunt Kathy, and Kathy's extensive family!

Click here for the full slideshow....



Highlights of the evening included Adam and Rachel sharing their baby news with the family, Spencer and Tyler making a Kathy sandwich (see bottom right photo), finding Spencer upstairs with his female cousins with his pants off (don't ask), Ryan beating Eddie at foosball, and Susan and Jim winning the award for worst white elephant gift-- difficult to describe, but basically a gaudy, light-up model of a casino. Merry Christmas, everybody!

Visit from Susan and Jim

Susan and Jim came out to visit for the holidays. In addition to the rest of our Christmas festivities chronicled on these pages, highlights of their visit included sorting through the U-Haul full of furniture and memorabilia they brought up from San Diego, Jim's regular morning bagel and coffee runs, Nai Nai reading Spencer Ryan's favorite books from childhood, and a fantastic birthday dinner for Susan in Mill Valley.

Happy Birthday, Nai Nai!!!

Spencer made a special cake to help celebrate Ryan's mom's birthday. Here he sings Happy Birthday to Nai Nai with much gusto before helping her blow out the candles.

Doodling with Mom

Spencer's past the stage of getting frustrated by drawing (for a while his favorite drawing phrase was "you do it!"). Now he dives into a coloring book with gusto, especially one as neat as the one Grace and Alonzo gave him. His favorite things to draw are circles (most commonly intended as the wheels on a garbage truck) and colorful scribbles (most commonly intended as fire or water).

Here, Eunice and Spencer take it to the next level, drawing the sun, clouds, fish and flowers. So much like a little boy... we could almost imagine him heading off to school. Now that's a scary thought!

Click here for a full slideshow...

Bathing Two at a Time

We decided to see if the boys were old enough to take a bath together tonight.... what fun! Tyler took one terrifying nose dive under the water, but otherwise the boys were fantastic. Click here for a slideshow and a must-see video....


Spencer plays with the water as Tyler looks on in fascination...


Spencer shows Tyler how to play the water flute.


Spencer loved being a big brother, taking a washcloth to Tyler's back for a good scrubbing. He even remembered to wash Tyler's feet. Click below for a video.

Christmas Party at the Gates

Corey and Maggie hosted quite a party for our extended community group on Saturday night... the kids had crafts projects and movies to watch, and the adults enjoyed a pot-luck of dishes from each of our Christmas traditions growing up. The evening culminated with a white elephant gift exchange around 1 of the 2 Gates Family Christmas trees. We've certainly learned in 2008 how much Maggie has the gift of hospitality, but she outdid herself tonight!


Here's the full gang for a Nichols-style self-timer after the gift exchange: Tom, Cynthia, Julia, Blanca, Maggie, Olga, Corey, Matthew, Ray, and Jose in the top row, Justin, Kaitlyn, Ryan, Hudson, Eunice, Tyler, Madison, Amber, and Hannah seated below.



And of course, the white elephant. Coffee cups were the most stolen gift of the night...the throbbing back massager was the most demonstrated.


Julia brought special gifts for all the kids-- whimsical wooden Christmas ornaments made in Germany. Spencer's featured Santa in a helicopter, which just about sums up his dream Christmas. Thanks Julia, and thanks to the Gates!

Click here for a full slideshow....

Brunch at the Canada's

Grace and Alonzo hosted us for a fantastic weekend-before-Christmas brunch at their place... mushroom and spinach quiche, stuffed french toast, mimosas, and of course yummy yummy bacon made it quite an indulgent morning.



It was really neat to see the kids play with each other. They're all 2 years old right now, and are developing a fantastic dynamic together. Highlights included the uncontrollable giggles of a group pile-on, hours of much-welcomed, unsupervised play around Theo's train set, and playing fort under a blanket beneath Ryan's legs. Lowlights included frequent time outs for pushing and 1 nasty bite incident (incriminating evidence caught on film!).



How far they've come together! Our gift to the Canadas and the Wangs this year was a collage of our 3 little ones together. Their first time meeting, their first Halloween (and second and third), our first dinner party as parents with kids, and lots and lots of imaginative play (OK, mostly just "making coffee").



Digging through these old photos was hilarious. Our question: Why didn't anyone tell us that the "adorable" curls we loved on Spencer at the age of 1 made it look like he had a mullet? ;)

Click here for a full slideshow of our brunch...

Decorating the Christmas Tree

We finally found an evening to dig the ornaments out of the garage, put some logs on the fire, queue up some Christmas music on Pandora, and decorate the tree with the kids (we had Theo over for a sleepover, so the fun was doubled).


Our tradition of collecting ornaments as we travel has resulted in a little collection that we're actually pretty fond of (our favorites are from Baja, Hawaii, Bali, Martha's Vineyard, Vancouver, and a few from Ebay)... the need to "supplement" with red globes has gone down each year.

We managed to get our 3 boys to sit still for a minute in front of the tree later in the week for a cute photo....


...although Tyler solo is pretty good as well. In the red chair he looks ready to play the part of Santa Claus!

2008 Ideo Children's Party

Its become an annual tradition of ours to crash the IDEO children's party in Palo Alto (thanks to Grace's hospitality). With so many creative parents as employees, its always a pretty decent shin-dig. This year was no exception-- lots of activities, a bouncy house, and a place to get family portraits. Here's our best shot.... right in the midst of what we call a "cold spell" in Palo Alto so we're all bundled up.



The real winners, of course, came from putting the kids on camera. Spencer, Gaby, and Theo were hilarious. Spencer wouldn't stop picking his teeth, and Theo wouldn't stop picking his nose. Gaby would obediently clap her hands, wave and smile.... all with an expression on her face that said "what am I doing here with these bozos." Gaby, you'll wonder that more and more as you all grow up together!


Thanks for a great party, Ideo!

Click here for a full slideshow...

Nichols Boys

Now that Tyler has good balance, can sit up on his own, and defend himself a little better, he and Spencer have been having a lot more fun horsing around together. Click here for a full slideshow of our boys playing together....

Picking Out Our Christmas Tree

We usually help Ryan's dad pick out his Christmas tree at the San Francisco Guardsmen annual sale, held out on a pier over the bay by Fort Mason (definitely a unique spot for a Christmas tree lot!). This year we decided to get ours there as well, taking a break from our annual trip to Half Moon Bay to chop down our own tree. We'll resume that tradition when our boys are old enough to be of help!


There are some huge trees at the Guardsmen lot. Spencer had his eye on the biggest one of them all, but settled for a more reasonably sized tree that would fit in our living room. Let the Christmas season begin!

SNBC Holiday Party

Eunice attended her 9th annual SNBC holiday party, held this year at Erika's home in the Sunset.


Things look a little different than they did back in the day, with quite a few little kids (including Spencer and Tyler) adding to the fun.


Some things remain the same: a great group people, tasty food, and a rowdy game of White Elephant, including the yearly reappearance of "BOD" cologne. :)

Family Photos

Back in October, when Eunice's mom came back out to visit us, we arranged for a family photo shoot, in part to document this special time in our life with two boys under two, and in part to get some photos with Eunice's mom to thank her for her six weeks of invaluable help when Tyler was born.


Our friend Katie Prentiss took these great photos in Central Park. She worked her magic, somehow capturing what we love so much about our boys and each other.


Click here for a link to a slideshow of all the proofs.

You can check out Katie's other work on her website: katieprentissphotography.blogspot.com

Princeton-By-The Sea

We woke up on Saturday morning to dense fog on our street. Since the kids were up early, we decided to take a chance that the weather would improve and headed out to Princeton-by-the-Sea, just north of Half Moon Bay.


Sure enough, the fog burned off with the morning sun. Spencer had fun running around with Ryan on the beach, Eunice and Tyler took a nice stroll on the pier, and we ate lunch at Barbara's Fish Trap, a seafood restaurant with great views of the water and some of the best clam chowder and fish and chips in the Bay Area. Click here to view a slideshow of more photos.

Thanksgiving Leftovers

Spencer discovers the age-old truth that as yummy as the Thanksgiving meal always is, somehow the leftovers are even better.

Thanksgiving 2008

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house again this year with Adam, Rachel and the Barrons. Adam and Rachel came over the night before to start prepping their 16-pound organic, free-range turkey. The intricate process included piercing little packets of pancetta wrapped garlic and rosemary into the turkey's thighs, cramming the stuffing (made out of dried apricots and ground pork!) between the skin and meat, and closing the turkey cavity with a warmed whole orange. Our Thanksgiving spread also involved sweet potato casserole, garlic mashed potatoes with chives, homemade cranberry sauce, broccoli salad, beet and pear salad with feta, chocolate frosted angel food cake with whipped cream and strawberries, and a pumpkin pie. Mmmmm!!!


Ryan, Adam, and Spencer managed to go for a hike at Purisima Creek in the afternoon, Rachel and Tyler got in a good nap, and we all got to spend some great quality time with the Barrons. A wonderful Thanksgiving, indeed!

Click here for a slideshow.

Matthew the Train

Spencer always has a great time playing with the other kids in our church home group. His latest favorite activity is climbing on Matthew who pretends to be a train carrying Spencer as "cargo." Thanks for humoring our heavy little boy, Matthew!

Spencer's Artwork

Spencer loves to draw, so we're going to try to get better at saving and sharing some of his artwork. Here's the first piece in his online portfolio...


"Fish in a Stream" By Spencer Lin Nichols, 11/22/08

Tyler Sits on His Own

Tyler hit a major milestone this week: he can now sit up, unsupported! That may not seem like a bit deal, but it makes a huge difference in Tyler's life.



The world looks a bit more interesting from this vantage point!

Funny Feet

We don't know why, but Tyler thinks his feet are very funny.


Some giggling, the old-fashioned way...

After Dinner Antics

After dinner, Ryan and Spencer had a lot of fun pretending to go on a car ride. The trip involved stocking up on coffee, getting the bags ready to go, and then going "faster than fast." The destination? "Shopping for shoes for daddy and Rachel." Go figure.

Dinner with Dad

Some nights, getting Spencer fed, bathed, and into bed can be quite a task. We're tired. He's fussy... But then there are some nights when dinner miraculously comes together, Spencer makes it through the meal without any whining, and we end up having a great time together. Here are some photos and a video from a particularly fun dinner at home...

Ryan discovered a sure-fire way to get Spencer to eat his vegetables. Eunice isn't so sure she's willing to replicate the process since it involves hoisting Spencer up on your shoulders, blindly trying to find his mouth with a forkful of carrots, and then letting him wipe his dirty hands on your hair... :)

In the video below, Spencer sings "ABCD" with his dad.

Magic Mountain Fun

Gaby and Spencer spent a morning blowing off some steam at the Magic Mountain playground in Coyote Point Park.


Despite the overcast weather, they had a ton of fun "racing" each other on rocking horses, climbing up 3-story slide structures (though only Gaby had the guts to slide down), twirling around in the tire swing, and eating snacks in a wooden boat.

Sleep Training and Coordinated Naps

Two months ago, I started Phase I of Tyler's "sleep training," which involved getting him to drop feedings in the middle of the night. I would lull him back to sleep whenever he woke up instead of feeding him (based on the assumption that if he was able to fall asleep again, he must not be hungry). With Ryan away all week for the Dreamforce conference and the confidence that Tyler no longer needed to be fed at night, it was the perfect time to move on to Phase II - getting Tyler to put himself back to sleep without my help the countless times he would wake up in the middle of the night...i.e., let him cry it out. So, I moved Tyler out of our room and set him up in our guest room. The first night, I put him down to sleep at 8pm. He woke up at midnight, cried (really loudly) for 40 minutes, and then silence. I didn't hear from him again until 5:30am, at which point I fed him and he fell asleep again until 7. Not bad. The second night, I put him to sleep at 7:30pm. He woke up at 8pm, cried for 15 minutes, and then I didn't hear from him again for eight hours. The third night. I put him down at 7pm. He didn't wake up until 4:30am, cried on and off for 30 minutes before I fed him at which point he fell asleep again until 8. Progress! If I can get consistent, consolidated, uninterrupted sleep from the time I put Tyler down until 5am, it's going to make a huge difference in my quality of life. Hopefully that's just around the corner. And with a little luck, if we can stretch that until 6 or 7am, we'll move Tyler into Spencer's room and the brothers will finally be roommates!


The other thing that has made a big difference in my life is that the boys have been taking coordinated afternoon naps for two months now. The silence in the house from 1-4pm is pretty fantastic. Plus, the boys are pretty darn cute when they're snoozing together. :)

Halloween with Cora

This October, Eunice's former housemate from Boston, Cora, came out to meet Tyler and help us celebrate Halloween in style. After four days with the Nichols boys, we're pretty sure Cora left feeling the need to take a vacation from her "vacation"! Click here for a slideshow of Cora's visit and our Halloween festivities.


The days were jam-packed, starting bright and early at 7am with Spencer thumping across the house in his pajamas yelling, "Where Cora go?" We filled our days with pumpkin hunting in Half Moon Bay, monarch butterfly sightings at Natural Bridges State Park in Santa Cruz, lots of book reading - especially "Crash-Smash!" (a new favorite from Cora), coloring, dimsum eating, shopping, and an occasional much-needed nap. Evenings were packed with pumpkin carving, bath and bedtime for the boys, whipping up dinner, and catching up on each others' lives. And just when Cora thought she could sit back and relax, we put her to work creating our Halloween costumes...from scratch! All told, she helped us hem Spencer's fireman pants, created an adorable dalmatian dog hoodie for Tyler, and sewed three "flame shirts" for the adults - definitely our best Halloween costumes to date.


On Halloween, we stopped by Spencer and Tyler's daycare for a costume party before going trick-or-treating with the Wangs and Canadas on Costa Rica Street, which was lined with palatial homes with over-the-top decorations. One of our favorite houses was Batman-themed, complete with adults dressed up as every major character from the Batman movies, a giant screen playing "Batman Begins," and a life-size replica of the Bat-mobile parked in the driveway. Spencer was a bit overwhelmed by the mayhem, but ended up having a great time being pulled in a wagon with his buddies Theo (Waldo) and Gaby (a butterfly). We had a fantastic time and have already booked Cora's services for next year. Whether she'll want to come back is another matter entirely. :)

Click here for a slideshow and videos.

Give Me Five!

Spencer loves goofing around with Ryan. Their latest game is "Give me five, on the side, up high, down low..."


But Spencer's favorite part is yelling, "You're too slow!!!"

Retreat in Santa Cruz

We spent the weekend at a retreat at Mount Herman Conference Center in the mountains of Santa Cruz, escaping from the hectic pace of every day life. We holed up in a fantastic one-bedroom cabin with a deck overlooking a stream and steep ravine, dropped the boys off at the retreat center's fantastic nursery, listened to inspiring talks, engaged in enlightening conversations, made some new friends, sang songs around a campfire, and hiked throughout the redwood forests.


Ryan, Tyler, and Spencer crossing a suspension bridge with Corey, Madison, and Kaitlyn.


Ryan and Spencer explore a cool tree house. All in all, a fun, relaxing, rejuvenating weekend - in fact, we might just have to make this family retreat an annual tradition...

David's Visit

We had a surprise visit from Eunice's brother-in-law, David, who came to the Bay Area to officiate a wedding. He was able to spend a few days with us, connecting with his two nephews.


Each morning, Spencer would wake up and say, "I want to see David," and then run across the house to our guest room. No wonder he has such affection for Uncle David who would read him countless books, push him in the swing, help him ride his bicycle, play all sorts of games, chase after garbage trucks with him, and make him laugh! Click here for a slideshow and videos of David's visit.

Hanging out at Home

On the days when I have both boys at home with me, we have a lot of fun hanging out, goofing off, laughing, and making silly videos. Here's a sampling from our activities today...


Spencer shows off his new winter hat... which actually fits Tyler pretty well, too. Guess big heads run in the family. :)


I've taken the boys to visit their dad at the Appirio office several times for pizza parties and foosball, which has given Spencer the mistaken impression that this is what Daddy does at the office every day. Most recently, he has decided that he would like to go to work every day, too, so he has started to call daycare "Spencer's office."


Nobody gets Tyler to crack up quite the way Spencer does. We love it that both of our boys have such hearty belly laughs...

Hudson's 2nd Birthday Party

Today, we headed over to the Gates' house for an impromptu birthday party to celebrate Hudson's 2nd birthday. Click here for a slide show of the party.


Spencer spent the evening "cooking" french fries with Hudson and Gaby on a toy stove, jumping on an exercise ball, playing house, and forming a jam band. Tyler spent the whole time in the arms of some wonderful women, including Po Po, Madison, and Mariana. After a pizza dinner and chocolate cake, Hudson opened up his gifts, the kids played some more, and we finally dragged a protesting Spencer out of the house to head home for bed. Another fun evening at the Gates'!

Open Door

Earlier this year, we started attending Open Door (an off-shoot of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church), held at Aragon High School, which is walking distance from our house. We love the proximity to our home, the engaging Sunday services, the caring folks who play with Spencer in the nursery, and the drinks from the gourmet coffee cart. :) Best of all, though, we've connected with some great families that we hope will be part of our lives for a very long time.


This Sunday, we had a several folks from our "home group" over for lunch. We had a relaxing afternoon enjoying the sunshine in our backyard and catching up on one another's lives. It has been awesome watching the kids bond over time, despite huge age differences (from 5 months old to high school). At any given moment, there's a game of battleship going on, Mariana is making Tyler giggle, Kaitlyn is playing badminton, Madison is reading books to Spencer, Hudson is running around dragging a baseball bat, and Matthew is running away from all the girls... It's mayhem, yet somehow wonderful.

Click here for a slide show of photos.