Silicon Valley Family

09/21/2026

I told my husband that I was going to do this post (inspired by the fact that it’s National Pepperoni Day), and he was like, “Oh, that could get heated…” 😂😂 But I know my SV Family community, and I know we can share our opinions on the best pizza places in the South Bay with civility and respect for our differing tastebuds — right? 😉
I’ll go first with our favs at home and in places we frequently visit, then I’d love to hear yours in the comments. Pics welcome too! (We can do that on Instagram now, right?) Maybe we’ll inspire each other to check out a small business we hadn’t visited before! 🍕🍕
At home, we love:
🍕Tony & Alba’s Pizza and Pasta Pizza and Pasta at Wi******er and Stevens Creek in Santa Clara
🍕Pizza My Heart Pizza My Heart (We go to the one next to SCU, but there are a bunch of them)
🍕Pizza Antica Pizza Antica at Santana Row
🍕Willow Street Wood-Fired Pizza Willow Street Pizza (Los Gatos or Willow Glen)
At the beach, we love 🍕Pleasure Pizza Pleasure Pizza on 41st Ave (they also have a downtown Santa Cruz location, I think), and 🍕Pizza My Heart again, of course.
At Tahoe, we love:
🍕Moody’s Bistro Moody's Bistro Bar & Beats in Truckee (admittedly not a pizza place per se, but they have four pizzas on the menu and the ones I’ve tried are OUTSTANDING)
🍕Za’s Lakefront Za's Lakefront in Tahoe City
🍕Mountain Slice Mountain Slice Cafe in Tahoe City
🍕The Dog and Bear The Dog and Bear Tavern in Tahoma (West Shore)
We eat a lot of pizza. 😂
Your turn! What are your favorites, locally and beyond? I’m always up for trying something new!

09/19/2026

I’m not an “influencer.” I detest that term. “Content creator” too. The former screams “disingenuous” to me, and the latter screams “junk.” If I ever get to the point where the product I create when I sit down to write can best be described as mere “content”… well, that’ll be the day I sign off for good.
What I *do* see myself as — and have since I started SV Toddler back in 2013 — is a discoverer and sharer. An inspirer. An encourager. I’m fortunate to have time to explore the Bay Area — whether it be the playgrounds of my blog’s early days or the hiking trails of the COVID era or the coastal destinations that are my current obsession — and I LOVE to share the great things I find with people who want to hear about them. It makes me feel connected. It makes me feel useful. It makes me feel whole.
I take my “job” seriously because I know that you trust me. I feel like I’ve earned that trust over 13 years and I value it as much as I value anything in the world. If I say I love something, I mean it.
This afternoon, I got a call from my very first fans.
“Kris!” my dad said when I answered. “Mom and I decided to take your recommendation of doing a drive up the coast from Santa Cruz. We’re in Davenport now. What’s that restaurant you posted about on Sunday?”
“Oh, Whale City!” I said, delighted. “You’ll love it. Get the clam chowder and the fish and chips. So good. And,” I added (knowing my audience well) “if you don’t get dessert there, go a bit further north to Swanton Berry Farm. They have strawberry shortcake… and marionberry cobbler.”
I could literally picture my dad’s face lighting up. “Cobbler…” he mused happily. “Okay! Thanks! We’ll call you later.”
And they were off on their day trip, inspired by me. 😊
I’m sharing this because I want you to know that every recommendation I make on SV Family goes not just to my general readership, but to my parents, my siblings, my very best friends. If I think something is great enough to share with you, I think it’s great enough to share with the people I love the most. Disingenuous “influencing” is not in my wheelhouse.
Your trust is a gift to me, and I promise never to take it lightly.

09/18/2026

Kind of amazed by the response this got when I posted it as a story late last night (after a very disheartening scroll through my Insta feed), so I’m re-sharing it now as a post.
SV Family is, and has always been, me. I don’t have collaborators or helpers or a “team.” (I laughed once when someone at a kids’ concert said, “Oh, are you with Silicon Valley Family?” — “Dude, I *AM* Silicon Valley Family.”) And if I don’t let other *people* help write my posts, I sure as heck am not going to hand over the reins to some large language model. Writing is my great skill and love — it always has been — and the fact that it is well on its way to being rendered obsolete pi**es me off to no end.
Hi, I’m Kristin. I’m a human. An explorer and a sharer. A (recovering) lawyer, mom, wife, friend, volunteer. Someone who genuinely wakes up each morning hoping to bring positivity into the world.
And I create everything I post on this page.
Thanks for being here and being human with me. ❤️🌎 Please keep connecting — it gives me hope that there is still value left in being real.

09/16/2026

A Sunday afternoon adventure to one of our favorite spots oh the coast!
🫘 Bean Hollow State Beach features two distinct beaches located about a mile apart, connected by the beautiful Arroyo de los Frijoles coastal trail. The northern parking lot takes you to the pebble beach (a must-visit!); the southern takes you to a lovely wide swath of sand. Both are accessible via steps, with the pebble beach requiring a little bit of scrambling over rocks (kids can do it, but people with mobility challenges won’t be able to).
🦀 Cool tidepools at low tide, some accessible from the trail via steps. These tend to be more the rock crab/little fish type of pools rather than the anemone/starfish type you find closer to Santa Cruz.
🦭 Lots of seals/sea lions and pelicans! There are free binoculars to borrow at various stops on the trail so you can get a close-up.
🥾 The trail is easy but not stroller-friendly (several steps up and down as you pass the creek beds, plus it’s really narrow at points) and I wouldn’t take a young child prone to running off — the trail hugs the bluffs at certain points, and is, again, pretty narrow.
🦮 Both beaches and the trail are leashed-dog friendly.
🚗 Parking is free. If you can’t find space in either of the lots, use any of the pullouts on the west side of Hwy 1 and take the little connector trails to the Arroyo de los Frijoles trail, which will get you to the beaches.
We love to stop at Whale City Bakery in Davenport for lunch on our way up (the BEST fried artichoke hearts, fish and chips, clam chowder, and pastries in a location right across Hwy 1 from the ocean) and at Swanton Berry Farm for strawberry shortcake, berry cobbler, and a big basket of organic strawberries on our way home!!!
Enjoy this special spot!! (And please check out the warning at the end of my video!)
**Apologies to anyone seeing a duplicate post! There were music licensing issues on FB so I had to pull the original.
California State Parks

09/11/2026

Big tip for those of you who seek to maximize your Lightning Lane Multipass purchase at Disneyland! I thought I knew alllll the tricks, but a new one was revealed during our early August trip, and I confirmed it at a second trip later that month: if you have a LL that extends to park closing time, the ride goes down during your window, and it doesn’t reopen before closing, you’ll get a Multiple Experiences Pass that’s GOOD THROUGH THE NEXT DAY!!! That’s a big departure from the norm (MEPs generally expire at the end of the day you get them) and means you could start your morning with an awesome ace up your sleeve!
The strategy implication: KEEP BOOKING LLs UNTIL PARK CLOSING (if you’re coming back the next day). This applies even if you’ve left the parks for the day, as you can book/modify from anywhere. Keep booking at every opportunity (when you scan in, when two hours have passed, or when a LL converts to an MEP) and modify any LLs you’re not going to use to later and later until they reach the park closing point.
Who knows? You could go to bed at 11:30 pm with a LL booked and wake up in the morning to a high level MEP! 😴🥳
(This was filmed in DL last month… I just forgot to post until I was cleaning out videos on my phone today. 😊)

09/09/2026

Me: “I’m going to stay off social media because everything I see there just feeds my anxiety..”
Walgreens checkout line: “Oh, I’ll give you something to be anxious about.”
Could’ve lived my whole life without knowing eyelid mites exist. 🙈🙈

09/05/2026

My fav family farm! Highly recommend a visit!!!

09/03/2026

Do you do this? It saved me 15,000 Rapid Rewards points today, and thousands more since I figured it out in March. If you’re booking Basic fares on Southwest, this is a must-watch.
(I’ve gotten a lot of questions about booking Basic fares with kids/fears of being separated — stay tuned for another post on how I handle that.)

08/29/2026

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📅 October 17, 2026
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🕰️ 5:30 – 11:00 PM

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