Lake Lagunitas Hike with the Usual Suspects

This Bay Area adventure didn't get off to the most auspicious start-- Lake Lagunitas is deceptively far away, and we were all dealing with whiny, hungry children as we wound our way up the final road to the lake.  In fact the Canadas called to say that they were turning around and going home.  They ended up making it, but only after we'd ravenously eaten their lunch!

But a little food was all it took to revitalize the troops.... and lunch by the waterfall was just the thing to get us all ready for a fantastic walk around the lake.  Fond memories include epic battles between the kids for hiking sticks, an hour of fantasy fishing in the river, several near-soaked experiences (both from the lake as well as from potty training), one very real tumble from a log for Theo, and an even more real fire truck evacuation during our hike (fortunately, no one we knew!).

A great adventure, thanks for organizing, Nikki!

See the full slideshow here....
    

Hiking in the Belmont Foothills

Susan (Ryan's mom) and Jim are moving to the Bay Area! We've been having fun house hunting with them and dreaming about what it will be like to have them here. Ryan took these fantastic photos of the boys on a trail just steps away from a condo for sale in the Belmont foothills. They put in an offer, which was sadly turned down, but know they'll find their perfect Bay Area home soon.

Mamie's Visit

Mamie surprised us with an impromptu visit from Taiwan while she was up in Marin taking some dance classes. We met up with her at Greens for a tasty vegetarian lunch, right on the Bay.


Always fun catching up with an old friend. To top it all off, it was a beautiful day to be outside, and we even caught an exciting sailing race taking place right outside the restaurant. Gotta love San Francisco!

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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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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Roosevelt Beach

Eunice headed out to Half Moon Bay for yet another perfect October day, this time roping in Grace, Theo, and Reah. They decided to check out Roosevelt Beach this time. It was Grace's first beach outing with Reah (it was warm, but not warm enough for her first swim!). The boys had lots of fun kicking the ball around the beach and playing "train" with a long string of seaweed. Craziest moment? When Theo ran off down the beach, with Tyler eagerly chasing after him.... Eunice and Grace had to head off in hot pursuit, leaving Spencer to watch Reah!

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Dune Beach

Now THIS is what every Monday in October should be like-- a fantastic outing to the beach with the boys, chasing seagulls (with Spencer yelling "Seagull, don't take my food!") and romping around in the sand. It's a turning point to see the boys laughing and playing with each other these days, even giving each other an occasional impromptu hug.

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Pumpkin Picking in Half Moon Bay

While Ryan was out of town at an IT conference, Eunice attempted to take the boys to the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival, only to encounter stop-and-go traffic minutes into the trip. She managed to salvage the morning, with the help of the Canada's who joined her for pumpkin picking in decidedly more sunny climes at Webb Ranch in Portola Valley.

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The boys had a fantastic time running around, sitting on pumpkins, selecting pumpkins, taking pictures with pumpkins, and climbing in the wheel barrow. With a jumpy house to boot, this turned out to be the perfect place to spend the morning.

We've never ended up with so many pumpkins for Halloween-- the boys didn't want to stop loading up our wheel barrow!

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SF "Triathlon": Brunch, Bikes, and Beach

KB has started a fantastic tradition of organizing themed, kid-friendly "days in the city," with enough forewarning to tempt us up from San Mateo. Tyler and Ryan joined in the festivities with Lee and Charu on this beautiful September day. Highlights included brunch at Greens, getting geared-up at the Sports Basement, Tyler's first ride in a bike trailer, frequent beach-breaks for wave splashing every time Tyler got fussy, navigating the embarcadero with a sleeping toddler in tow, lunch at the Ferry Building, and a looong ride back in a stiff headwind. We finished the day by meeting up with Eunice and Spencer for Thai Food back at Nara and Tracy's apartment in the Richmond. Thanks for getting us all together, KB!

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Labor Day in Twaine Harte

Becoming an annual tradition, we headed up to Twaine Harte again this year for Labor Day weekend with the Hills and their new dog, Penny. Adam, Rachel, and Lilah came as well, joined by Rachel's brother Simon, and Susan and Jim flew up from San Diego, making it a bona fide family reunion.

As usual, the boys enjoyed the lake, we took turns cooking tasty meals at the house (including Adam's memorable bread pudding!), played some fun (and loud) family games at night, and engaged in interesting conversation. Two fun activities were added to the mix this year: a walk downtown with the boys to check out Twaine Harte's fun playground and a 4 hour-long mountain bike ride through the redwoods. Click here for a full slideshow.

Here's a video of our group of hard-core mountain bikers tackling the trail... Looking forward to another fun-filled gathering next year!

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!

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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!

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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.

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Steve Miller Band at Mountain Winery

Should we feel guilty about taking advantage of a work boondoggle?

Ryan's company recently raised a round of VC money, and that inevitably unleashes a wave of cold calls from companies that assume you need to spend it on what they have to offer. One particularly persistent company was trying to sell us a data center.... particularly inane because you'd realize after 5 minutes on our website that the whole point of our company is that we don't need a data center.

But still-- when they passed along 2 free invites to a customer appreciation night at Mountain Winery to listen to the Steve Miller Band.... on a night when Eunice's mom was going to be in town to babysit.... who were we to say no?

We made it into a date night. Decent BBQ, an open bar, good classic rock, perfect weather, unbelievable views over Silicon Valley, and no annoying work conversations either...

What a great night!

Concert at Emerald Lake

Our best night out with both boys ever? Probably! An unexpectedly wonderful night at this random place called "Emerald Lake Country Club" in Redwood City... basically a tiny lake nestled in the hills where they dammed a creek on its way to the bay.

Our good friend Corey's band had a gig there that night, and we decided to make an evening of it. The best part? The band literally played ON the dock, floating on the lake, while we all hung out on beach chairs and watched the sun go down. It was a rare balmy night in the Bay Area, and what could be better then swimming in a lake, playing in the sand, eating a picnic dinner, drinking some chilled white wine, dancing with our toddlers, and listening to some great covers of rock classics? Not much, especially when everyone is in a good mood.


The photos only begin to capture it... you've GOT to check out this video of the boys dancing. Spencer starts things off, but is soon joined by Theo and his fancy footwork. Hudson finanlly decides to get in on the action as well. Fantastic night... as good as it gets!

Click here to see a slideshow of more photos from our evening on Emerald Lake.

Overnight at Pigeon Point Lighthouse

Just an hour's south, north of Santa Cruz, there's a hostel at the base of Pigeon Point Lighthouse. They have ocean-front “family rooms” ... perfect for a Friday night getaway! We didn't get there in time to do much other than eat dinner at the picnic table outside of our room and watch the sun set over the Pacific....but we were all excited for the change of pace.


We had a room full of bunk beds and a bathroom all to ourselves, and a great kitchen and family room that we shared with a small group of girlscouts (more interested in movie night than in babysitting the boys, unfortunately!). Tyler was up at 6am while the rest of our house was still sleeping, so he and Ryan went off for a walk and some breakfast down the road at a surfer's cafe. We spent the rest of the morning on a walk down to sheltered Whaler's Cove, where the boys threw rocks into the tidepools while we all relaxed in the sand. Lunch at our favorite Chez Shea in HMB and naps on the drive home... not a bad overnight trip!

Click here for a slideshow, including a fantastic series of Eunice and Spencer playing a silly game called "I'm Spencer, You're Mama" in the midst of the flowers in front of the lighthouse...

Hiking Seal Point

Seal point might be one of the prettiest places we've never even heard of in San Mateo. Nevermind that its built on a landfill-- stroller friendly trails on a hill with drop-dead georgeus views of the bay? Hard to beat. Grandpa Nic and Abby came down to join us for a little walk.


And of course, Spencer rode his bike. Fantastic on the way out, not so great on the way back as we approached nap time.

Memorial Day in Tahoe

We talked about going camping for the long weekend, but realized it would be much more fun spending Memorial Day on Donner Lake at the Canada's cabin in Tahoe. We joined Grace, Alonzo, Theo, Phil and Gaby for a beautiful weekend on the lake. Highlights included hanging out on the deck overlooking the water, paddling around Donner Lake in our trusty inflatable kayak, wonderful meals at the Canada cabin, some killer late-night games of Texas Hold-em, our first real hiking trip with Spencer and Gaby on foot, watching the kids skinny dip in Donner Lake while the ladies got a massage in Truckee, and some fantastic BBQ at Smokeys on our way home.

See below for highlights and video.... or click here for a full slideshow!

Here's a rare shot of the adults together, enjoying some steaks off the grill after putting the kids to bed. Dinner was followed by Texas Hold'em... a late night game that ended after 1am - which we paid for in spades the next day!


We spent a lot of time hanging out in the cabin. Phil took one for the team and played "horsie", transporting Gaby, Spencer, and Theo all at the same time around the house on his back while crawling on all fours. Wall-E was also a saving grace, keeping everyone happy in that precious hour before bedtime.

The kids are old enough now to have their own play dynamic... sometimes best buddies, sometimes worst enemies. We realized that everyone was happiest out of doors! Here are the kids hanging out on the deck overlooking Donner Lake. It was a beautiful weekend to be on the water with the little ones.

We took Gaby and Spencer for their first real hike as well.... a two mile trek to a resevoir.  The kids did great.... walking all by themselves nearly the entire way.   Ryan DID have to carry both boys on his back for the last 1/2 mile (Tyler in a pack, Spencer on his shoulders), but all in all we'll consider it a success to get this sort of focus from the kids....



Best of all was getting everyone in the water. Our trusty inflatable kayak led to some memorable trips along the shoreline for all of the kids (Spencer and Theo couldn't decide if it was more desireable to be in the front our back)... And of course, throughout the weekend, the kids wanted to jump into the water at every opportunity.... whether it was the muddy water at the end of our hike or the pristine water at the little beach right outside our cabin. The guys volunteered to watch the kids while the ladies got massages in town... our secret was to strip the kids down and let them play in the water for hours. Why is it that kids don't notice cold water?




An amazing weekend... despite the brutal late night drives in both directions timed to be post-bedtime for the kids so they would be asleep in the car. Amazing how much a change of setting reminds us how much fun Spencer and Tyler can be. Thanks for the use of the Canada Cabin, Grace and Alonzo!

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