Best of 2009

2009 started off with a blast from the past: Back in 2004, we roadtripped down Baja for New Year's in Cabo with the Brackenburys and the Canadas, swapping high fives at sunset throughout. 4 years and 4 kids later, we wanted to reassemble the crew in Mexico again. A lot was different this time around, but the critical things stayed the same: sand, surf, fresh grilled tacos, and cold Mexican beer, all enjoyed in the company of good friends.

The rest of winter was bearable thanks to visits from Cora, Kristin and Faith, , Gillian and Maureen, time with local friends and family, including Nara, Tracy, Lee, KB, the Hills, and Therese, and of course lots of time playing with Gaby and Theo. Eunice started back to work in January, making time at home with the Boys even more precious. Spencer started to get more interested in Chinese and his skuut bicycle, and Tyler really came into his own as a toddler.

We were very happy to welcome Adam and Rachel to the peninsula-- they moved to a really cute place in San Carlos, just 10 minutes down the road from us, and we loved welcoming them to our community. We were all eagerly awaiting the arrival of their baby girl -- we hosted a pretty unique baby shower in their new place (a game of "birth canal," anyone?)

As the weather got better, we started to get out and about with our newly mobile family. We'd head out to the beach on a Sunday afternoon, go hiking at Edgewood park with Grace and Alonzo, check out the local cultural attractions, and take our out-of-town friends Jon and Allison to Sawyer Camp. We even got away for a fantastic spring Tahoe Weekend with Lee, KB, Nara, Tracy, and Charu. The kids are getting more and more into the holidays, so finding an Easter egg hunt for them to participate in was a big deal for the first time. Everyone seemed to have kids at Ryan's Five-Year Stanford B-School Reunion, as did Ryan's old William's buddiesAndrew and Brian.

Tyler wrapped up the spring season with some significant milestones: his first steps, followed closely by his 1st Birthday. He was lucky to have visits from his Nai Nai, his Po Po, and Cora.

But the most important baby of the year was Lilah Beth Nichols! Born on June 16th at 2am after 18 hour of natural childbirth (go Rachel!), she weighed in at 7 pounds 2 oz, sporting a shock of white-blond hair. Welcome to the club, Adam and Rachel-- if you only knew what you were getting yourselves into!

A year and a half after Tyler's birth, the boys are finally starting to play pretty well with each other around the house. That made father's day this year an especially important one for Ryan, his first as the father of two.

We got the summer off to a roaring start-- a special overnight trip to the hostel at Pigeon Point Lighthouse and a fantastic Memorial Day at the Canada's cabin on Donner Lake. Closer to home, we made our annual trip to theMaker Faire and got outdoors as much as possible, whether at Seal Point with Grandpa Nic, our church picnic,the Japanese Tea Garden in Central Park, goofing off outside with Theo and Gaby, or playing in the yard.

It was a big summer of music: we hit concerts in San Carlos' Burton Park with Adam and Rachel, saw the Steve Miller Band up at Mountain Winery, and went to our good friend Corey's band performance on a warm summer evening at Lakestock.

The summer also marked some birthday milestones - Eunice's 34th, celebrated with the old city church crew and again with a night in SF with the gang. We had a whole host of other July Birthday Parties at Little Kingdom Daycare, and Spencer's 3rd birthday at the Gates (yet again!). Spencer turned three just in time to enroll in the Mandarin immersion preschool program at our local public magnet school College Park. He gets to do a specialcooking project each month, which he loves! We celebrated Hudson's birthday at Marvin Gardens, Theo's birthday in our backyard, and Julia's 40th....princess style.

Then, let the summer travel begin! Highlights included our first family backpacking trip to Coast Camp, the 20 person Tao Family Reunion at Lake Travis TX (preceded by Spencer and Eunice's Trip to San Antonio), the Joyce Family Reunion in San Diego, and Labor Day in Twaine Harte with the Hills. And when we weren't visiting family and friends, they were visiting us: Po Po came out for a visit, as did the former pastor of Eunice's church in St. Louis.

Closer to home, we finally finished the conversion of our garage to a playroom, and participated in the launch of the new campus of our church!

The Bay Area's Indian Summer is always the best time to hit the beach, and we made the most of the opportunity this year: trips to Dune Beach, Roosevelt Beach, and Half Moon Bay with Todd & Jenny, as well as an outing to Chrissy Field with KB and Lee.

October brought Adam & Therese's Birthdays in the Marina, Pumpkin Picking in Half Moon Bay, a crazyHalloween in Adam's 'hood, and the usual daycare Halloween festivities.

Then it was Dreamforce season, Ryan's busiest (and most exciting!) time of year at work. We needed a long weekend up in Russian River to recover.

One of our conclusions for 2009 is that divide and conquer is sometimes the way to go. Whether it's the boysplaying with each other (or with their friends) while the adults socialize, or us splitting up the kids and doing something fun with them separately... sometimes anything is easier than having the 4 of us all together. Case in point? Before the holidays, Eunice and Spencer spent a week in St. Louis with the Lins, letting Ryan and Tylerhave some serious bonding time back home. Good times all around.

Queue holiday madness: getting the tree at Santa's tree farm, decorating the Marina house, hosting our church home group Christmas party, celebrating Susan's 60th birthday, and enjoying the holidays with Michael and Therese, and Nancy and the Barrons. We needed some R&R after all the craziness and were very happy to escape to a fantastic beach house near Stinson with the Nichols clan. We closed out the year at the Canadaswith Lee & KB playing our now traditional midnight game of poker.... ready for a new decade to begin!

New Years Eve at the Canadas

We kicked off 2005 with the Canadas in Baja; 2006 with the Canadas in Los Angeles; 2007 with the Canadas in Hawaii; 2008 and 2009 with the Canadas in Tahoe... Can you guess how we rang in 2010?

Yes indeed, with the Canadas! We celebrated at their place this time, with Lee and KB making the trek down from the city for a fantastic feast of slow-cooked short ribs followed by a rousing game of poker. It had to be rousing - unaccustomed to the break in the action caused by getting four little kids to bed, Lee and KB were quickly losing steam by 9pm. Some mental exercises (poker chip long division) whipped Lee back into shape, and he was winning money in no time. Although it was Ryan that came out the big winner this time around-- Eunice continued her trademark maneuver of going all-in just before midnight regardless of what her cards said.

Our boys looked so comfortable in the guest room when we finally wrapped up at 2am that we decided to crash there as well. But of course, oblivious to the fact that their parents had only been sleeping for 4 hours, they were up and at 'em at 6am.... several hours before Theo usually stirs (lucky Grace and Alonzo!). We knew we had to get the boys out of there fast before they woke everyone up.

But what does one do with two toddlers still in their pajamas at the crack of dawn on new year's day? Breakfast at Denny's, of course! We were quite a sight: 2 kids in their fleece pajamas, 2 bleary-eyed parents in the same clothes as the night before, and 4 healthy appetites. What could be more perfect to start off a new decade than a Grand Slam?


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Stinson Beach Getaway

Ryan's dad Michael found the perfect place for us to recover from holiday craziness: a fantastic house in Sea Drift, right on the water at Stinson Beach (Ryan had actually been there once before for a b-school party), complete with a path from the back door to a bench overlooking the water.

We had some beautiful days and some rainy days, but the boys loved the beach so much that they were perfectly happy to get bundled up and run around in the sand, rain or shine.

Highlights included Tyler getting better and better at navigating the rocks down to the beach, Spencer practicing his jumps off the sand dunes, discovering a cool driftwood fort, the boys playing amazingly well together (including hours of entertainment dragging coolers around the house), some fantastic fires, an amazing sunset, fantastic meals (including the "best Salmon ever", according to Therese!), and, of course, a hearty game of Yahtzee. Even the intrusion of a bunch of work calls from Ryan couldn't ruin the relaxation.

Our last day was perfect: omelets at the house, a nice walk along the beach to the lagoon, where the seals were hunting fish, outdoor lunch at the Sand Dollar Cafe, and a beautiful drive back to the city (punctuated by only occasional whining from the boys)... just in time to swing by and see Nara and Tracy's brand new baby, Isla!

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Christmas with Nancy and the Barrons

Christmas wouldn't be complete without some QT with the Barrons. The plan was to grab hot pot, but we'd all eaten so much already that we decided to just hang out at our place instead. We threw a log on the fire, exchanged some gifts for the kids (Spencer and Tyler got bean bag chairs for the play room!), and had Spencer show off some of his "yoga moves for kids" cards (that's what he's doing with his leg in the air). Best of all, Nancy and Donna now have a little girl in the family to buy clothes for-- Lilah will be well stocked with adorable outfits for sure!

Thanks Nancy, Donna, Thomas, and Michelle for making the trek from Marin! Christmas wouldn't have been the same without you!

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Christmas with Michael, Therese, Lauren and Kate

For Spencer's first Christmas, we "played the baby card" and forced everyone to come to our place instead of making our usual pilgramage around the Bay Area. We were proud to see Adam and Rachel do the same, and thrilled that Therese, Lauren, and Kate played along with this Nichols "tradition" and made the very long trek down to San Carlos for Christmas brunch.

The boys were in fine form (mostly), Lilah was in a hilarious tongue-extending mood, and Adam and Rachel whipped up quite a feast. It was definitely special to have Lauren and Kate join us for what's always been a very special holiday in their family.

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Play Kitchen for our Little Chef

During Po Po's visit before the holidays, she said she wanted to get the boys something for Christmas. During a trip to a toy store, we rounded a corner and came upon the play kitchens. Spencer started gushing, "Po Po, I want THAT!!! I LOVE that!!!" My mom sighed with resignation and said, "OK. But to tell you the truth, I hate to get that for you. Being a cook is such a tough job." Then, she saw something on the shelf next to the play kitchen. Her face brightened as she said, "Spencer, how about this? Po Po would love to get you THIS," as she held up a kid-sized doctor's satchel. Spencer responded with a moan, "No, Po Po, I don't want that. I don't love that. I love the kitchen." Even though I think it killed the Chinese heart in my mom, to her credit, she laughed and said, "OK. Let's get the kitchen."

Here's a photo of the kitchen in the playroom. You can tell that Spencer takes his cooking VERY seriously. He and Tyler spend countless hours making coffee and concocting all sorts of "interesting" dishes for us to try. Thanks, Po Po, for getting such a fun imaginative toy for the boys. :)

Susan's 60th Birthday Visit

December 22 is a pretty lousy day to have a birthday as my mom knows all too well. Her special day half-forgotten in the midst of holiday travel, I can't even remember ever having a birthday cake for her. Adam and I decided that this year-- mom's 60th-- would be different. We gathered a bunch of photos from each stage of her life, put together a slide show with music from each era, and booked a private room for close family on the big day, the night of her arrival from San Diego.

Alas, it wasn't meant to be. A bumpy flight in meant that my mom was laid low for the evening (Remember, this is the woman who spent the night leaning over the side of the boat at her dad's Navy formal when she was a kid. On an aircraft carrier. In calm seas. At dock. In Pearl Harbor).

We didn't let that stop us from having a fantastic week. Dinner itself was a still a lot of fun with the Hills, and we did watch the slideshow with my mom on the couch later that night at Adam and Rachel's. We also got in a great hike at Edgewood, some quality time with the boys, some intense after-hours gift assembly of a cool workbench (an awesome Christmas gift for the boys from Susan and Jim), and of course the annual Christmas Eve party at Bob and Kathy's.

The best part? Susan and Jim were inspired to start a house hunt up in the Bay Area.... let's see if we can get them up here for good!

Here's the birthday slideshow:

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And here are some great photos from Susan and Jim's visit!




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Tyler's Week with Dad

While Eunice and Spencer were in St. Louis, Ryan and Tyler had some fantastic bonding time - really the first time that they've been together for an extended period without Spencer in the picture. And what a difference! It ends up that Tyler knows all the words in his favorite books. He just never gets a chance to say them before Spencer blurts out the answer. And when Tyler doesn't have to compete for attention all the time, there's no reason to shriek or whine...

So what kind of trouble can an 18 month old and his dad get into when alone for the week? Not much, it ends up. Work/daycare ate up most of the time during the week, but Ryan was definitely ready to pack in fun activities and quality time with Tyler come the weekend. A Christmas party at the Canadas, brunch with Adam and Rachel at Alana's, a family-oriented Christmas service at church, lots of walks around the neighborhood.... single parenting is a piece of cake with only one ;)

Concert in St. Louis

One of the highlights of our trip to St. Louis was a special concert put on by the Tangs. Valerie and Melody had just performed in their first public piano recital back in Dallas, which was organized by Jennifer for all of her piano students, so they were eager to do a repeat live performance for us.

Valerie, never one to be shy, announced that she would go first, performing "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

Melody, Jennifer's star pupil, went next, memorizing two songs, "Riding on a Mule" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town."

Not to be left out, Paxon, just two years old, showed us that he wasn't afraid to "perform" either.


A surprise to us all, Spencer asked to take a turn as well. He had been banging aimlessly on the piano all week before the Tangs arrived, so we were all amazed at Spencer's performance, clearly inspired by what he had just heard...


Jennifer wrapped up the concert in style, separating the pros from the amateurs...


The Tangs' influence on Spencer went beyond music to include theater. Melody, Valerie, and Paxon love putting on "shows" for their parents and friends. Spencer was fascinated by this concept and put together a few shows of his own:

Pre-Holidays in St. Louis

Eunice took Spencer on a trip to St. Louis to visit Po Po right before the holidays (she hinted that it might, just might, be her last in St. Louis!). It was a mini-reunion, with Jennifer and David's family coming up from Dallas and cousin George and Lindai's family driving out from Peoria.

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Eunice and Spencer arrived a few days early to get in some quality time with Po Po. We had fun visiting a butterfly sanctuary, riding the merry-go-round at historic St. Louis Carousel, listening to Christmas music at Eunice's childhood church, eating lots of yummy home-made food, and of course, making a special trip to McDonald's for the a nostalgic McRib. :)

With the arrival of the Tangs and Lins, the relative quiet of the house exploded with six kids chasing each other around the house and putting on "shows." We also took them on some fun outings riding to the top of the St. Louis Arch and making two visits to the truly magical Magic House, one of Jennifer and Eunice's childhood favorites!

Try explaining the elevator ride up the arch to a bunch of nervous kids!


Best of all though was the quality time spent with old childhood friends and family. Thanks for hosting a very special Christmas, Po Po!

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Spencer's Stories

Spencer has turned into a fantastic storyteller over the last couple of months. Here's a sampling of some absolute classics:

This one is about a fire that a fireman puts out "so we don't get in trouble." That is, until there is a bear outside. And then a "bad guy."


This one is about Santa Claus... who goes to Africa several times before going "back to sleep."


Here, Spencer can't decide whether he's telling a story about Jack or singing a song, and switches mid-stream. Tyler, in the meantime, nearly drowns himself in the bathtub.


Here, Spencer retells one of his favorite stories ("Angela's Airplane") nearly word for word.....

Romp in Bed

We're not sure the title of this blog post is particularly appropriate - or perhaps we should say that we're pretty sure that Phil would not find this blog post particularly appropriate! Nevertheless, when his daughter Gaby came over for some playtime, she and Spencer somehow ended up in our bed having a grand old time. :)

At preschool, we can already see the beginnings of boys preferring to play with boys and girls preferring to play with girls, but we're counting on Gaby and Spencer's special friendship to stand the test of time.

Rainy Day

Rain or shine, the boys love playing outside. Our patio is the perfect place for them to run around in their raincoats and rain boots. The fallen leaves made this otherwise dreary day particularly colorful.

Decorating the Marina House

One of the few Nichols family "traditions" is to head down to Marina Boulevard in December to help Ryan's dad, Michael, get the house spruced up for Christmas. We string up lights outside the house, set up the glowing snowman and drummer boys, take turns selecting ornaments and putting them on the tree, hang up each family member's stockings, listen to Christmas music, drink eggnog, and eat a tasty meal together. This year, we added Lilah and two rambunctious boys to the mix. A few broken ornaments aside, the energy of the kids helped to make it really feel like Christmas.

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Home Group Christmas Party

We hosted our home group's Christmas party this year to give the Gates a break. We did it pot-luck style, with tasty appetizers, cheesy potatoes, spinach and raisins, corn on the cob, chicken pesto pasta, German chocolate pie, ice cream, and berries. Add to that plenty of wine, egg nog, mulled apple cider, gifts for the kids (thanks, Julia!), a fun white elephant game, and good conversation.... The perfect way to get the holiday season kick-started!

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Nara and Tracy's Baby Shower

After picking out a Christmas tree, the boys napped as we headed up to San Francisco for Nara and Tracy's baby shower. Only one month left until their lives are changed forever! We are living proof of that undeniable reality: neither one of us was able to have an adult conversation at the baby shower, constantly distracted by keeping the boys fed, active, and happy.

Best story from the shower was walking in with Tyler and having one of Tracy's friends exclaim that Tyler looks exactly like Karen Chang, a girl she knew in college. Well, Karen Chang is Eunice's cousin. How crazy is that?!?! We need Karen to send us a few pictures of herself when she was 2 years old to see if we've finally found who Tyler takes after!

A smaller group headed out afterwards to a fantastic, kid-friendly restaurant, Rigolo Cafe, in Laurel Heights. Gourmet food plus a kid-play-zone - something tells us Nara and Tracy will soon be regulars here. :)

Trip to Santa's Tree Farm

Ryan and Adam took Spencer and Lilah out to Half Moon Bay to pick out Christmas trees from Santa's Tree Farm in what is turning into an annual tradition. Spencer had fun running around the hills helping his dad and uncle look for the perfect tree: it just so happened that the first one was perfect, then the second one, then the third one...

Adam and Lilah with their first real Christmas tree! Just right next to the fireplace in their home.

Ryan and Spencer found the best tree yet for our house-- very, very narrow, like it was made to fit into the corner of our living room. Can't wait to decorate it!

Tyler Feeds Himself

Tyler has grown up so quickly in so many ways. Especially at meal times, we are reminded what a "big boy" he is as he pounds down an incredible quantity of food in no time at all - all on his own. With two self-feeding kids, we've definitely turned a major corner at meal times!

Like his big brother, Tyler loves to "cheers" with his milk. It just gets more and more fun capturing him on video. The only snag is that our Flip camera has little images of cars on it, and every time I start to film him doing something cool, he gets distracted by the little cars and starts pointing at the camera, exclaiming, "Car! Car!"

Russian River Weekend

After the crazy Dreamforce week, we were in need of some serious R&R. Eunice found us a great house to rent up on the Russian River, and we decided to escape the week before Thanksgiving along with the Canadas.

The house was great-- huge deck with a hot tub, vineyard in the front yard, and just a hundred yards from the river. We had a ton of fun with the Canadas, including some tasty home-cooked meals, relaxing in the hot tub, wandering down to throw rocks in the river, skuut excursions into town, Persimmon picking at a local organic farm, and a killer game of chess, played with shot glasses that were consumed as the game progressed (we lost by a pretty big margin, but everyone comes out a winner in a game like that!).

The house was outside of Guerneville, which has quite a reputation (which we were not aware of). Mostly, we just noticed a very large transient population... some of the happiest, friendliest homeless guys we've ever run across. We'd walk over this big pedestrian bridge on our way into town (oftentimes through huge clouds of pot smoke), and the guys hanging out would tell each other to "watch your language, kids passing through" and would let Ryan know that he's the "luckiest man in the world" to be with family.

Our last day was probably our favorite-- after a lazy morning we had lunch at the beautiful outdoor cafe at Korbel winery. We drove up Russian River while the boys napped, stopping at one of our favorite vineyards, Hop Kiln. We then headed to the coast by a little town called Jenner, where we found a path out to a deserted beach at Russian Gulch. It was a calm, warm November afternoon, and we had the beach to ourselves as we played with the boys and watched the sun set. The boys started to melt down in the car since it was way past dinner time by the time we left (complete disaster was staved off only by a raucous sing-along of popular Christmas carols), but a little restaurant in Monte Rio saved the day. It was called Cafe Les Jumelles-- totally kid friendly, great steaks, outstanding homemade mac and cheese, and Lagunitas IPA on tap. Heaven.

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Dreamforce

Dreamforce is Salesforce.com's annual user conference, and is the biggest week of the year for Appirio, Ryan's startup-- this year 18,000 customers and prospects descended on Moscone center, and Ryan was fully occupied for the week with the booth, the speaking opportunities, and of course throwing the best party at Dreamforce-- a VIP event at the historic San Francisco Mint.

Since Eunice's non-profit is a Salesforce customer, she was also up at the event-- although she spent most of her time at the fancy hotel where Ryan's company put him up, catching up on the 4 years of sleep deprivation she's endured since our boys were born. (Ryan was only at the hotel a few hours a day, so Eunice had to make sure the room was put to good use!)

One highlight of the week was Ryan's 15 minutes of fame on stage with Appirio's customer, Avon. It was flattering to be asked by Avon to get on stage in front of 10,000 people and help demonstrate the application we'd built for them while Salesforce.com's CEO Marc Benioff bantered with our client.

Then Marc turned to Ryan and asked some questions about how the app was built. The only problem: that wasn't in the script, and Ryan didn't have a microphone! Ryan gestured grandly to indicate that the customer was supposed to do the talking, but Benioff came back 2 more times with questions, until the client said "Marc, he doesn't have a mic!"

It was definitely one of Ryan's most frustrating professional moments-- to have the opportunity to share a cool story but to be unable to do so! This video captures a little bit of the absurdity/humor of having a 6'5" guy pantomiming on stage.

Another highlight of the week was when Adam (who works at Salesforce) hosted a panel.... with Ryan as one of the panelists! The Nichols boys rocked the house (as much as possible given that it was a 7:30am session after the night with all the big parties). With Eunice in the audience showing her support, it was definitely a family affair to remember. You can catch the audio here, and learn a little big about what the Nichols boys are up to these days!

And where were the boys through all of this? Po Po to the rescue! Terry came out for the week from St. Louis, taking care of Spencer's pre-school drop-off and pick-up, entertaining Tyler, cooking up a storm, and putting the boys to bed at night. The boys had a great time hanging out with their grandmother while their parents were a world away up in San Francisco, and Eunice got 3 glorious days and 2 nights away from the kids - the longest stretch she has ever been away from Spencer and Tyler!

Train Hopping in San Francisco

Another one of KB's fantastic days in the city, this time entirely on trains! It really was Spencer's dream day-- Ryan brought him up to join KB, Lee, and Charu for this adventure, while Eunice spent some quality time with Tyler back on the home front.

We started in the Castro, catching the F train all the way down market street to the Ferry Building. We grabbed brunch at Cane Rosso, checked out the transit museum, and then continued our ride along the Embarcadero. We hopped off in Fisherman's Wharf, and then walked through Fort Mason to Grandpa Nic's house for an afternoon nap. Then we took the 22 Muni all the way back to where we started, just in time for a late night burrito at a Castro Taqueria!

I hope Sencer remembers this one-- it really doesn't get any better than this for a 3 year old... or for a 30-something year old!

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Light at the end of the tunnel

After months of largely ignoring each other (or worse, competing for our attention), the boys are finally starting to really play with one another - and we're starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel for the craziness that has become the norm for our family life.

All four of us playing together is still a rarity-- we've definitely decided that the "divide and conquer" strategy works best for now, but every once in a while we capture a moment with all of us together that is very happy indeed.

Whether horsing around in bed in our pajamas, or the magical stretches when the boys entertain each other outside or in our new playroom, it's the moments below that keep us sane during what's a pretty crazy time in our lives!

Halloween in San Carlos

We spent Halloween in San Carlos this year, helping Adam and Rachel celebrate Lilah's first Halloween (and first Halloween in their new home)! We started with some pumpkin carving before getting dressed up in our costumes (yes, we're still dressed as a pride of Lions!), mixed up an outstanding batch of Dark 'n Stormies, and then heading off to famous Eucalyptus Avenue, where the neighbors go all-out for Halloween.

The street was closed to make room for the hordes of pedestrians, and some of the houses actually featured performances throughout the evening (think fire-eaters). The boys were much less fearful this year, and really got into going door-to-door with their baskets. Our favorite picture? The angelic Lilah oblivious to the fact that her mother has transformed into a faceless Mexican wrestler (lower right photo in the collage above).

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