Todd & Jenny's Visit

Adam and Ryan's childhood friend, Todd, and his wife Jenny flew into town for a visit. We haven't had a chance to see them since before they were married, so it was a treat to catch up with them over the weekend. The weather was beautiful, so we hung out in Half Moon Bay (Lilah's first time at a beach!) and then headed over to Adam and Rachel's for a tasty BBQ dinner.

Making Eight Treasures Rice at Preschool

One of the things Spencer loves about his preschool, which is a mandarin immersion magnet school, is that they do a special cooking project each month, where he gets to make and eat a special Chinese treat. This month, the students made individual-sized servings of "Ba Bao Fan" (or Eight Treasures Rice), which consists of layers of sticky rice, red bean paste, dried fruit, and a special sweet sauce. Mmmmm!!!

Dance Party

This morning, Spencer woke up wanting to dance. So... I turned on some music, he picked up his maracas, and started getting down in his airplane pajamas. Little did I know that Tyler had some pretty smooth moves of his own. Look out ladies - the Nichols boys are ready to hit the dance floor!

Here's a video of Spencer's impressively spastic rendition of B-I-N-G-O, paired with Tyler's more restrained moves.

Tyler decides this dance party isn't fit for public viewing...

The boys end the morning dance session with a jubilant version of "If You're Happy and You Know It." Clearly, the boys are happy. Very happy.

Garage Conversion At Last!

Since buying our house back in April 2006, we've only done a few home improvements, but each one has had a huge impact on our quality of life around the house:

1. Shortly after moving in, we installed ceiling speakers in our dining room. You might laugh at this being in our "major home improvement" category, but for Ryan, it makes all the difference!
2. A year ago, we installed the much-talked-about custom-gate across our driveway that would turn our driveway/patio area into a contained play area for Spencer and Tyler. This relatively small change dramatically increased the usable space on our property, with Spencer and Tyler now spending countless hours out there on their ride-on cars and bicycles - best of all, we're able to see them from our computer desk, kitchen, and dining room.
3. This summer, we tackled the natural add-on to the gate project and converted our garage into a playroom for the boys. It's still technically a garage (in compliance with San Mateo building codes) that we can drive a car into, but it has been transformed by custom-french doors, carpet, dry wall, and a fresh coat of paint. The boys love it, and so do we.

Here's the "before" photo of our dark, dank, junk-filled garage...

And here's the "after" photo of Spencer & Tyler's new play space. Pretty cool, eh?

A lot of people have asked where all our junk went. After moving everything out to our patio (where it remained, unfortunately, for almost a month), we finally sorted through the riff-raff, recycling or giving away what we could, throwing away what we couldn't, and storing the rest up in the space above our garage, which is now easily accessible via a nifty pull-down ladder!

ODC Launch

At long last, the church we've been attending for over a year (Open Door Church San Mateo) which had been renting space from Aragon High School, finally moved into a newly remodeled permanent space at 4150 Piccadilly Lane near El Camino Real and 42nd Ave.

ODC's grand opening launched with a fun block party that highlighted local merchants and featured, much to Spencer's delight, a jumpy house! Spencer and Tyler especially loved their new nursery and pre-school rooms, which contained some fantastic toys for them to play with.

This photo below doesn't look like Spencer at all, but we thought we'd include it so you could catch a glimpse of what he's going to look like when he's an awkward 13 year old with braces. :)

Photo Shoot at Alana's

Once again, back at our favorite brunch spot, Alana's, we decided to take advantage of the gorgeous day and historic setting by taking some photos of our boys with our new Canon DSLR.

Here are some shots of Spencer, mostly looking pensive...except when he's eating!

And here's our precious Tyler, who's intensity can vanish in a heartbeat with his smile.

Coast Camp Backpacking Trip

With Tyler now 15 months old, and Spencer now 3 years old, we decided it was time for us to tackle our first family backpacking trip with both of the boys (Ryan and Adam took just Spencer on his first backpacking trip when he turned 2). So, we packed up two huge packs, the jog stroller, and Spencer's balance bicycle, drove out to Point Reyes National Park, and trekked 3 miles on a relatively flat pathway out to Coast Camp, a cozy campsite nestled in a grassy valley just 200 yards from a pristine beach and tide pools.

Our pace was a slow mile per hour, but we were rewarded by an absolutely gorgeous sunset over the beach, a tasty dinner cooked over our trusty one-burner stove, and a surprisingly good night of sleep, packed in like sardines in what we used to think of as a 2-person tent. :)

Spencer did nearly the entire trek on bike. Tyler surprised us by doing about a third of it on foot.

With our first family backpacking trip a success, we're ready to start planning our next outdoor adventure!

Click here for the full slideshow.

Experience Corps Bay Area Retreat

Eunice has worked with Experience Corps for nine years. She was hired as the San Francisco Director back in August 2000, with just a few dozen older adult volunteers tutoring and mentoring children in 5 San Francisco public schools.

Here's Eunice back in 2000 with her staff, which included just one other full-time staff plus five AmeriCorps*VISTAs engaging in a year of service with the program.

Since then, the program has grown into a multi-city effort with 200+ older adult volunteers serving nearly 3,000 children in 23 schools in San Francisco, Oakland, and San Rafael. This summer, Experience Corps held it's first multi-city retreat for its now 20 staff members, a wonderfully intergenerational group that continues to be near and dear to Eunice's heart.

STLCCC Bay Area Reunion

Eunice's childhood pastor and his wife (Pastor Samuel and Dorothy Pan) were passing through town, spurring an impromptu reunion of 36 people from all over the Bay Area who had, at some point in their life, been a part of the St. Louis Chinese Christian Church family.

Pastor Pan and Dorothy met our kids for the first time. It was a particularly special treat for Eunice to catch up with two of her childhood friends, Aubrey and Patrick, their wives, and their adorable children. We ate a tasty Chinese meal together, the kids had fun running around, and the adults shared some fond memories from their time at STLCCC.

Amazingly, of this very multi-generational group, Eunice had the longest-standing history with STLCCC. Her parents helped to found the church, so it has been a central part of her life since she was born. Though it has been sixteen years since Eunice lived in St. Louis, the reunion was a reminder of how rare it is to be part of an extended family like this one - a truly special community with bonds that transcend geography and time.

Birthday Song for Po Po

Spencer took a moment during lunch at Sea World to wish Po Po a happy birthday... Wish you were here!!!

Tao Family Reunion at Lake Travis

This daunting post on Eunice's family reunion at Lake Travis in honor of her Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Daniel's 60th birthdays has single-handedly brought our blog to a stand-still. Cousins Karen and Erin went all-out in this celebration of their parents' birthdays, renting a 4-house compound walking distance from the lake, complete with professional chefs who cooked 3 gourmet meals for us a day and a photographer who documented the entire weekend. Now four months later (and 30+ blog posts behind), we have finally made our way through 1,575 photos (we're not joking!) in order to get this out. So here, for your viewing pleasure are four painstakingly selected collages and two videos to give you a small glimpse into our crazy family reunion at Lake Travis...

Given the sweltering heat, we spent as much time each day as possible in the lake. The water was pretty low, but that turned out to be perfect for the kids who spent hours playing in the shallow waters along the bank.

Mom arrives to find her boys happily romping, naked, in the lake.

Erin put together round-robin tournaments for pool, ping pong, and foosball. We were the reigning champion in foosball, fared pretty well in ping pong, and didn't even attempt to compete in pool!

Erin coaches Spencer in ping pong but concludes he needs to work on his stamina.

Eunice and Mimi put together Olympics-style games, diving the extended family members into two teams to compete in a piggy-back relay race, limbo, water balloon toss, and tug-of-war. Eunice's team was the decisive winner, though that might have had something to do with having Karen's husband, Alex (a professional basketball player), on our team. :) Go Fire Ants!!!

The most decadent aspect of the weekend was the professional chefs Karen and Erin brought in to cook our meals. Everything was made from scratch, even the bagels, which required the chefs to literally work around the clock. Spencer's favorite chef was Angela, whom he fell in love with when she made him a peanut butter jelly sandwich as a snack, and plated it beautifully before presenting it to him. Eunice is somewhat of a peanut butter sandwich connoisseur and can confirm that it was, indeed, the best PB&J she has ever had.

This was the first Tao family reunion with a significant number of children present. We had every age represented from 0 to 7 (Jake-newborn, Tyler-1, Paxon-2, Spencer-3, Valerie-4, Justin-5, Valerie-6, Joshua-7). Mimi is pregnant with her third child, so the extended Tao family continues to stay on track with one baby born each year. Between catching up with the cousins, watching the kids bond, and helping Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Daniel ring in their 60th year, it was a weekend to remember!

Click here for the full slideshow.

Spencer's Trip to San Antonio

As a precursor to the Tao Family Reunion at Lake Travis, Eunice took Spencer on a special trip to Sea World in San Antonio with Jennifer & David's family from Dallas and cousin Mimi & Steve's family from Virginia. Despite the fact that it was a sweltering 100+ degrees, Spencer had a fantastic time cooling off with ice cream, playing hide-and-go-seek in the air conditioned rental house, taking a cruise along the Riverwalk, exploring Sea World, watching Shamu do flips in the air, going on his first real roller coaster ride, splashing around in the water park, and hanging out with cousins Melody, Valerie, Paxon, Joshua, and Justin.

Traveling alone with Spencer was SO much easier than bringing the whole family. Spencer kept himself happily entertained on the flight with books and crayons.

Spencer had so much fun with cousins Melody, Valerie, Paxon, Joshua, and Justin. They spent a lot of time playing hide-and-go seek in the home we rented just a few miles from the Riverwalk.

Some roles never change. Jennifer was put in charge of the "kids' program" for the upcoming Tao Family Reunion in celebration of Uncle Bonnie and Uncle Daniel's 60th birthdays. She came prepared with a special birthday song for the kids to learn and perform, complete with hand gestures and musical instruments. Spencer wasn't too sure about this whole thing, but as Eunice experienced all too often as a child, Jennifer has a magical way of getting people to agree to participate in embarrassing public performances...

Click here for the full slideshow.

Dinner at the Canadas

The Canadas had us over for a summertime BBQ at their house. Delicious meal and excellent company, as usual.


Watching Tyler, Theo, and Spencer sit together on their own at the little picnic table in the backyard made us realize how quickly time has passed. Our boys are growing up!

Po Po Visits Again!

Our daycare closes for a week over the summer-- we were very lucky to have Po Po come out to visit and help us out with the boys so Eunice didn't have to take the week off from work.

As always, it was a special treat for us all to have Po Po here. Highlights included lots of home cooked Chinese food (of course), lots of playing in the backyard, a couple of great date nights for the two of us, and some adventurous outings for the whole crew (e.g., Lakestock!).

The best part of Po Po's visit this time around, however, was that she really got to bond with Tyler. When Eunice and Spencer flew out to Texas to meet up with Jennifer and David's family for a pre-reunion jaunt to Sea World, Po Po stayed on a few extra days to be with Tyler and help out around the house. Tyler's a lucky boy to have gotten such undivided attention from Po Po. We hope these two will always share a special bond!

Lakestock

It was a big music weekend for us-- back to back outdoor concerts!

Saturday was another great night at Emerald Lake, the place we enjoyed our "best night out with the boys" earlier this summer. Our friend Corey wasn't on piano this time, but it was another warm evening perfect for enjoying a glass of wine and some good music with friends.

Adam and Rachel brought Lilah out for her first concert, and we met up with Alonzo and Theo, eager for their first father-son night out after the birth of Reah two days earlier. See below for photos and video, or click here for the full slideshow!

Highlights included Tyler rushing the stage, Terry entertaining all 3 little ones at once with bouncing arms and legs, and the mercifully short middle school punk band that played between the 2 solid rock cover acts.

Click here for the full slideshow!