Grandpa's birthday, Redwoods at Big Basin, children's museum

We were very excited the first week of November to plan a last minute visit from my dad, whose birthday we got to celebrate on the 10th. It was his first time coming out to see us in the bay and we unfortunately disappointed him with unseasonably chilly weather.

After a scorching hot August and September and a gorgeous October, we saw highs in the low and mid 60s in early November and I finally caved and let Rich turn on the heat in the house.

We also saw some strange, foreign liquid fall from the sky several times, which we had hardly seen since we arrived. The first two Mondays in November were washed out and I drove Rich to Stanford and Valerie to school (normally he rides his bike and Valerie and I walk). The first two times it rained I had to dry off the convertible interior with a towel. Schwoopsies! I got so spoiled by the total lack of rain I wasn't prepared. I am now aware though that on occasion it does rain here and I check the forecast and make sure to put the top up ahead of time.

We keep hearing that a crazy El Nino is coming and we should expect lots of rain this winter but I am sticking my fingers in my ears, singing "La La La" and hoping it doesn't happen. I know, I know, this poor state is in dire need of water, but I just got here from Cincinnati, cut me a break!  I so enjoyed the bone dry late summer. I think I am secretly a lizard and I belong in the desert. That climate does so appeal to me.

On November first we turned the clocks back (for real this time) and Valerie amazingly slept in until 8 am (which felt like 9 am), instead of her usual daylight savings wakeup around 7-8 am. I woke up early as always but greatly enjoyed laying in bed undisturbed until 8 in what can best be described as mom nirvana. I know I have done nothing to deserve the greatest sleeping toddler in the world but I will joyfully bask in my good fortune as long as it lasts.

A few days later Dad booked his flights and he arrived Friday night the 6th. We always love having him stay. He plays with Valerie and is ever so helpful in every way, with cooking, dishes, trash, cleanup, vacuuming, shopping.... if only all parents were so lucky to have a Grandpa this awesome around! We could never thank him enough for all he does and know we really are as lucky as can be.

We drove down to Big Basin to see the redwoods and do some light hiking on Saturday. It was too chilly for me with all the shade from the trees, and walking at Valerie's pace did not allow us to warm up at all. When we found sunny spots I would stop and bask in them; it was SO much warmer in the sun!

The trees were pretty awesome though. I would love to do a longer hike there in the spring when it gets warm again, although the winding, twisty drive there had us all slightly nauseous. On the way home, Valerie complained that her tummy hurt, and that she had "ten babies in her belly." Whenever she gets a stomachache she tells us she has ten babies in there. I have no idea where she got that from but it cracks me up every time.

We went out to Fiesta Vallarta, our favorite Mexican spot in downtown Los Altos, for dinner that night and enjoyed a pitcher of margaritas and excellent food on the patio.

Sunday it rained and we took Valerie to the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose since I had bought some groupons for discounted admission. This was not the best idea because everyone else with a toddler in the bay area had the same idea. They were having a Diwali celebration that day, and I have never seen such a crowded children's museum. I don't typically get claustrophobic but this was a horrible experience, waiting for every exhibit and feeling scrunched by all the people in my personal space. Once or twice Rich and I made eye contact: "kill me now." This kind of place on this kind of day will deter anyone from ever having a child.

I would never go back there again if I could avoid it, but I will admit it didn't seem to bother Valerie; she had a great time. I am just glad we had the discounted tickets because I would have been pissed if we had paid full price for that experience. She enjoyed herself, which is what matters. Rich, my dad and I could not wait to get the heck out of there.

It rained again Monday and we eagerly awaited some sun on Tuesday, Dad's birthday. He said he would like salmon and salad for dinner - two things he and I can always agree on - and I found a recipe I thought he would like, for a salmon BLT salad. It came out really good. Salmon with a rub of brown sugar, salt, pepper and paprika, with avocado, bacon, tomato, ranch dressing and walnuts. DELISH. No bacon on mine, of course. We just gave Valerie some salmon and bacon and she was happy. No lettuce gets past her lips yet.

She "helped" me make the chocolate cake from scratch with ground oats for flour, and I also made chocolate buttercream frosting, with half coconut oil since I ran out of butter. I found a great recipe which I will definitely use again  - no boiling water, no coffee, no creaming butter and sugar - the easiest cake-from-scratch recipe I could find. And it came out so good!

We sang happy birthday, Valerie got to help Grandpa blow out his candles and the birthday was a success! We are so glad we got to celebrate with Grandpa.

Halloween with Valerie, age 2.8

We threw a Halloween party at our house this year on Friday night the 30th, and between Valerie's Halloween parade at her school Friday morning, our party Friday night, trick or treat in downtown Mountain View on Saturday afternoon and trick or treat on our street Saturday night, I'd say we definitely maxed out Halloween this year. We never did make it to a farm to pick out pumpkins, which I wish we had found time for. Valerie kept asking to... but oh well.... next year.

I went all out decorating the house for Halloween; we had cotton spiderwebs inside and outside, red "bloody" handprints on the front door, pumpkin/spider/skeleton lanterns, a black streamer spiderweb on the kitchen ceiling, candy corn lights and a costume gallery from years past on the fireplace, purple string lights along the kitchen counter, and some caution tape-style signs outside.

I loved Halloween decorations as a kid and then stopped caring about them as an adult, but now that Valerie is old enough to start enjoying them, I'm summoning the return of my enthusiasm. I even bought balloons after I realized they are pretty much the best toy ever at her Halloween parade/party at school Friday morning. She had a ball throwing a balloon in the air and catching it for like 20 minutes.

Since Valerie wore two princess costumes this year, Rapunzel on Friday and Sleeping Beauty on Saturday, Rich and I decided to coordinate with her and be the king and queen. We ordered costumes from Amazon at the last minute (standard operations in this family) and they turned out pretty well. The party was a good time; a lot of our friends from biodesign came, and Valerie's BFF Kalinda (dressed as the fairy godmother from Cinderella) and newborn baby Cole (in scrubs to match his dad the doctor) held down the baby-and-child front.  I mixed pitchers of sangria and lighthouse lemonade but most everyone just drank beer.

I got the lighthouse lemonade recipe from my friend Sarah - it is:

Ice
Deep Eddy lemon infused vodka  (1 oz)
St Germaine (1/2 oz)
Sour mix (splash)
Fill the rest with soda water (60%)

 It was as tasty as I expected and I ended up drinking probably most of the pitcher by the end of the night and was not feeling amazing Saturday morning. Whoops.

I chopped up shallots and garlic and cilantro in the guacamole; we had chips, salsa, and caramel apple nachos which looked fancy and were easy to assemble; monster munch popcorn with peanuts, Reeses pieces and candy corn coated with candy coating; Porcini and pumpkin ale mac and cheese for the entree, and banana "ghosts" (peeled bananas with three chocolate chips stuck on them as eyes and mouth) as well as s'moreo bars for dessert. I was also going to have clementine "pumpkins" but could not find clementines at the store so I got three navel oranges instead, which did not peel easily enough for me to make them look like pumpkins. Everything came out great, although I tried to melt white chocolate chips in the microwave for the white "drizzle" on the apple nachos and that was a total fail. It melted kind of clear and you couldn't see it on the apples. I'll have to get white candy coating for that next time. And also not make monster munch again because I ate far too much of that after there was a ton left over.

Halloween Saturday night was a HUGE success. We weren't sure what to expect because I couldn't find any official trick or treat times online, but our street was packed with trick or treaters between 6:30 and 7:30, and a lot of the houses on our street decorated and got really into it. I unfortunately wasn't prepared with enough candy - I had bought popcorn packs and ring pops to hand out, and we had a bunch of lollipops so I thought we'd be okay, but it was crazy.

 Our next door neighbor is an older woman, and her daughter Pam, who is probably in her 40s, came down for Halloween and decked out their yard with all sorts of crazy stuff (flying bat, talking skeletons, moving ghosts, etc) and dressed up as a witch in full green face paint. We went over there first, and Valerie talked to her for a while (and was terrified of all the moving/talking decorations) and the witch gave her a huge handful of candy. Then Valerie was officially obsessed with her. She wanted to stay at her house all night. We made her walk down the rest of the street trick or treating, and after each house she asked, "can I go back to the witch's house now? " So funny. I think she enjoyed trick or treating, but she mostly wanted to hang out at the witch's house all night.

getting candy from the witch

She still asks if the witch is there every time we walk by the house next door. This lady made quite an impression on her.

She was soooo cute trick or treating. She was a little shy, and couldn't remember in what order to say "trick or treat" and "thank you." At one house I said, "what do you say?" and she said "trick-or-treat-thank-you." Several times she said "thank you" when they opened the door, and then "trick or treat" at the end. Then around 7-7:15 she wanted to go home because her candy bag was getting too heavy for her to carry. She wasn't as intent to get as much candy as possible like I expected. So sweet.

We ended up giving out almost all of Valerie's candy to the later trick or treaters after she tapped out early. Luckily she didn't notice, so that actually worked out pretty well. She has a reasonable amount of candy left rather than a whole bag full. We let her have skittles, nerds and M&M's, and she was definitely on a sugar high. I've been trying to limit her to about 1-2 pieces of candy per day since then. She wakes up every morning and asks for a lollipop so I have to hold her off until after dinner. Lollipops are still her favorite candy, although she is yet to meet a candy she doesn't like.

I was surprised when I asked her what her favorite part of Halloween is, and she did not say candy - she said pumpkins. Then I asked what her second favorite part is? and she said spiderwebs. Then third favorite was spiders. So here I thought she would say candy or costumes, but she apparently likes pumpkins and spiderwebs. Haha.

Out of all the great memories, my favorite part about Halloween this year was the amazing warm California weather! We didn't even need jackets to trick or treat! 80 degrees on Halloween! I'll always remember it fondly.

Fogarty Winery Dinner, Pescadero, Time Change Fakeout

It was a busy October for the Timm family! We kicked off the weekend of the 24th and 25th with a crazy mishap-filled Friday night adventure.

 The biodesign program hosted its annual dinner at the Thomas J. Fogarty Winery for all the fellows, faculty, sponsors, and their spouses on Friday night October 23rd, so we had secured our babysitter for the evening and were looking forward to a fancy date night out. I picked up Valerie from school, made sure the house was clean and started getting myself ready, and then the misadventures began.

I had asked the sitter to come at 6, and at 6:10 there was no sign of her, so I sent her a text to make sure she was still coming.  She responded, "Hi! I'm so sorry! I'm at the hospital! I fractured my ankle. I wasn't even thinking" ... so we began to panic. First I called our other sitter, who was just leaving to go to her school dance. No dice there. Then we thought of Rich's colleague with a one-year-old son, who also had a babysitter for the evening; maybe we could share their sitter? We were brainstorming options when our sitter said, "I just talked to the doctor and will be leaving soon. I can be at your house in 20 minutes." WHEW! She would be a half hour late, but at least we could still make it. Crisis averted!

Rich had called Andrew, his colleague with a little boy, and he and his wife were looking for a ride to the winery, so since we were running late anyway, we agreed to give them a ride. Rich told them we would probably leave around 7.

Our sitter showed up just as she said, about 6:35, and seemed to be walking just fine, thankfully. Then we waited for Andrew and his wife Katie, who were taking an Uber to our house. We got in the car so we were ready to go, and they came a few minutes after 7, so we headed out. The event started at 7, and it would take about 40 minutes to get to the winery, so we were running about 45 minutes late but hoped to still make it before the sit-down dinner started.

We had just started the winding ascent into the mountains when the gas light came on and we realized we needed to stop for gas, and there would be no more gas stations on our route. We would have to turn around, drive 10 minutes back to the main road, get gas, and start again. At this point we had to laugh at the comical progression of the evening thus far. Would we ever make it to this doomed dinner?!?  And why didn't we bring some hard liquor!?

We found gas (unfortunately, no liquor), and started back into the mountains, with a new goal arrival time a few minutes past 8:00.

This time, we made it all the way there. It was pitch black out, but we could see this was an absolutely breathtaking spot with an incredible view of the bay from the mountains. We walked around for a bit trying to find where we were supposed to go, and made it just after everyone had taken their seats for dinner.

We were sorry to have missed the delicious wines at the cocktail hour, but so relieved we made it! The rest of the night was wonderful. They featured an excellent chardonnay (which I usually don't like) and pinot noir, and a server brought me a fantastic green pea soup when I asked if the regular soup contained meat (it was made with beef broth). She asked what I would like for the entree, since the regular entree was a steak and halibut duo. She could either bring a vegetarian meal, or a double halibut - I went for the double halibut, and I am so glad I did!  The fish was melt-in-your-mouth perfection. I was so impressed; they are clearly accustomed to dietary restrictions around here!

The food, wine, atmosphere and company were outstanding. It turned out to be a great evening after we finally made it there. We definitely want to go back for a tasting one day so we can see the place in daylight! What a beautiful setting.

We had nothing planned on Saturday, so we did our usual workout shuffle in the morning; Rich went to the gym and I went to hot yoga, and we had a lazy afternoon of napping, relaxing and straightening up. After Valerie woke up we decided to drive to the beach at Pescadero for a quick hour before the sun set and then grab some dinner before driving back.

By the time we got to Pescadero it was after 5 and the temperature was dropping fast. The wind was blowing and I wished I had a hat, coat, scarf and pants. Sweet Valerie was happy in her bathing suit, running back and forth across the sand, until she wanted to cuddle in my lap under the towel at the end. Rich was in shorts and thought it was fine. Minnesotans.

After an hour I'd had my fill of shivering and we headed into town to find dinner. There were approximately 3 options, as Pescadero is an extremely tiny one-stoplight town. We chose the Pescadero Country Store, which looked cute from the front and had a sign that said "pizza." We had some tasty brick oven pizza, split a large beer and then the apple pie a la mode for dessert, which turned out to be HUGE and mostly crust. Then we went home, full and happy.

Sunday we had a full day planned, and I intended to go to hot yoga at 9 am before our lunch date in San Jose around 11, but it was not meant to be. The alarm clock next to our bed is one Rich had long before I met him, and it's programmed to automatically adjust to daylight savings time - but on the old schedule, before it got moved out a week. And Sunday, a week before the time change, was the day the clock thought it should fall back. This has been happening for years now and I still haven't learned to anticipate it. I laid around all morning, thinking I had time before I had to leave at 8:45, and then it hit me while looking at my phone that it was an hour later than I thought. ARGGG!!! I missed the 9 am yoga class so I went out for a short jog instead.

We drove down to San Jose at lunchtime to see our friends Anjuli and James, their daughter Kalinda (Valerie's same-age bff / sister from another mister) and their new house. It was a perfect afternoon. The girls ran shrieking around the house and the backyard, drawing with chalk, pouring water into cups, dressing up in tutus and having a ball together.

Our hosts made a most awesome lunch of wood plank salmon on the grill, salad with grilled carrots, bread and butter and fresh raspberries. It was all soo yummy, and even Valerie, the pickiest eater this side of the Mississippi, devoured every bite on her plate!  She does love salmon, carrots, bread and butter and raspberries, so the menu was perfect. It was so great to see them in the last few weeks before their new baby arrives, and so generous of them to offer to host us in the midst of getting settled in their house and preparing for the baby. We can't wait to meet the new addition when she's born!

We brought an extremely worn-out Valerie home for a late afternoon nap before our dinner guests arrived; one of Rich's colleagues and her boyfriend who was in town visiting from Belgium came over and we had a lovely evening talking and breaking bread with them (in spite of constant interruptions by Valerie until she went to bed).

I made a sweet potato/apple/pumpkin soup topped with spiced candied nuts and a dollop of goat cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches with apple, and caprese salad with balsamic glaze. I had a minor disaster and burned some of the spiced candied nuts but was able to salvage enough for dinner. Hate that! Burned wasted food just gets me right where it hurts, every time, and of course I feel the need to go through every last nut, saving what's salvageable. All that time spent sorting through the mess is the worst.

Anyway though, dinner came out pretty well, and Véronique and Moïse brought the most spectacular pear and Belgian chocolate tart with vanilla ice cream for dessert. My weird child did not like the tart and just wanted ice cream. I can only assume she will eventually grow out of her frustrating toddler-y food preferences. Lord knows I only wanted chicken fingers with honey mustard for the first twelve years or so of my life so there is hope for her.

It was another superb weekend with a few snafus thrown in to keep things interesting!