Closet Door Dilemma

Homeowners, future homeowners, people with opinions??? Weigh in will you?

We are redoing our closets and can't decide what sort of closet doors to put in.

The choices are:

Mirrored doors- that's what we have right now. When we see them we think, "outdated"... but we love the function of them... and Andrew absolutely loves checking himself out in them. So, should we just buy updated ones?


White paneled doors could look a little more updated maybe?


I think I might be liking the bi-fold paneled closet door option too? Not sure. We've had some
bad experiences with bi-fold doors in the past. This one works the best for a kids closet (maybe?) since you can open it and access everything easier...?


Opinions? Any other suggestions? If you were refacing your closets, what would you pick?

We are hoping to start demolition this weekend! It wouldn't be a holiday without a home improvement project on the agenda.

A short getaway... and a few other things

We have been SO BLESSED to have grandparents galore at our house lately! Last Tuesday Shari arrived for a visit. We had fun bopping around town, going to lunch at Google, exploring some parks, and showing her Candice & Bryant's new house. We also enjoyed wayyy too many late nights staying up till 11pm or 12am chatting and eating treats!

Eating lunch at Google w/ Grandma (the pasta bar on Wed is delish!!)

On Thursday night, Kevin & I said goodbye to Shari and the little man and we drove south to San Simeon and Santa Barbara for a little getaway trip. We loved every minute of our adventure together!! Don't get me wrong... I LOVE Andrew and love every minute that I get to spend with him, but my parents taught me that the most important thing you can do as a parent is love your spouse, have fun together, and continue to always be cultivating your relationship with one another- which means taking time to hang out as a couple! Although that is do-able close to home... it is even more fun to have an opportunity to go on a little adventure. Our trip reminded me once again how much I love Kevin and how much fun we have together.

On our drive down to San Simeon we took a pit stop at Applebees to consume basically their entire dessert menu.

Kevin's bed at our hotel ;)

We rolled into foggy San Simeon around 10:30pm and checked in to The Morgan Hotel. It was beautiful. We didn't want to pay much for such a quick stay, so we were actually shocked at how nice this place was. On Friday morning I woke up around 8am and went for a run in the neighborhood (there isn't much of a neighborhood... mostly just Highway 1)... and I managed to run circles enough to stretch the small running area into a 40 minute run. Then we grabbed breakfast at the hotel and headed off to Hearst Castle, about two miles down the road, for our 11am tour.

Riding the bus up to the castle

We couldn't have picked a better time to take the tour. The clouds along the coast disappeared and the weather was gorgeous! Perfect not too hot, not too cold central coast weather. Loved it!


Kevin had never been to Hearst Castle before, so we just took the basic experience tour and really enjoyed it. Our tour guide was wonderful and I loved seeing everything again.




I feel very large and in charge in these pictures (which distracts a bit from their beauty), but I guess once I'm not pregnant anymore I'll at least have something to compare myself to and think, "wow, at least I'm not as huge now as I was back on our trip." :)


Kevin loved the pools and is hoping we can have one of these some day.


After the tour we ate lunch (Kevin downed some beef burger/sandwich that had been highly recommended by Candice... and he thought it was really good)... and then we watched the IMAX movie, Hearst Castle: Building the Dream. I enjoyed a nice nap in a comfy seat during most of the movie (because that's always what happens when I sit down at 2pm these days).


We spent the rest of Friday afternoon driving down to Santa Barbara. I had a great car nap- an added bonus of leaving the singing 2 year old at home. When we arrived, we checked into The Mason Beach Inn... cheap, pretty nice, only two blocks from the beach, and conveniently a mile or less from downtown (my favorite part).

We ate dinner downtown on Friday night at the Habit Burger Grill and then went and watched Inception. Such a great night! Afterwards we topped off the evening with some hot cocoa to warm us up on our mile walk back to the hotel :) My goal was never to use our car in Santa Barbara (because I love walking so much)... and that goal was accomplished! (I think Kev is still recovering :)).

On Saturday morning I went for an hour run along the beach paths while Kevin slept in. We loved just having a chill morning and eventually we made it downtown for lunch at a yummy Indian restaurant. We ate enough food to last the entire day... and then some. To work off our lunch, we rented this duece coupe thing from Wheel Fun down by the beach... and rode it around for about an hour.


The weather was insanely beautiful and so were the views along the water. Fortunately the seats were adjustable so that Kevin was able to get semi comfortable- I forget sometimes how tall he is. The little surrey that I originally wanted to ride was so short that his knees would've been at his chin and his head wouldn't have fit under the roof.


We spent the afternoon shop-bopping around downtown and utilizing our Banana 30% off discounts... we got Kevin some great shirts for work and enjoyed browsing. After being on our feet from noon onward (about 6-1/2 hours), our legs revolted and we walked the mile back to our hotel to relax!

Later in the evening we ventured back downtown to devour some yummy Ben & Jerry's ice cream sundaes, buy Andrew-man a little present (from Rite-Aid- aren't we awesome parents ;)), and enjoy some live outdoor music.



Sunday morning we woke up and dropped in for church at a local chapel and then started our trek home. One of the things on our list of "Buskirk Fun Things to Do Before we Die" is to drive Highway 1 from San Diego to Seattle... preferably in a convertible (any guesses as to who added this item to the list?... since I like my hair neat and get carsick on windy roads) . Well, we didn't have the convertible, but we decided to drive home from Santa Barbara to Monterey on Highway 1. We couldn't have had a better day.


We stopped a few times to snap some photos and enjoy the views.


Although the drive took us almost 7 hours (instead of a much shorter drive on 101), we had a lot of fun... and I enjoyed naps during some boring parts and I didn't get car sick. Yay! Only negative was that Kevin's car stereo was stolen a few weeks back... so we had no music on the drive... although eventually we whipped out his iPad. Mostly we just had a good time chatting and enjoying the views.


We finally got home around 5pm and were happily greeted by Andrew and Shari. They had so much fun riding bikes, playing outside, exploring parks, going to soccer practice, and hanging out with Candice, Bryant, Livvy, and Peter while we were gone! We are so grateful for Shari! What a super Grandma!

This morning before Shari's flight back to Utah we had fun playing at the park. Shari has become an expert snail finder over the past week or so... so Andrew was really excited when she found TWO snails at the park!


We even went back to visit them again tonight.


What a great week! Now back to reality I guess... painting rooms, mopping floors, doing laundry and dishes, decorating, and lots of organizing is ahead!! So glad we got a little end of the summer getaway before September arrived!! Thanks again Shari!

Little twins

Last Friday Andrew's little buddy Livvy came and spent the morning with us. We started off the day with a trip to the Lindsey Wildlife Museum. Andrew was anxious to show Livvy all the owls. On the drive to the museum he kept saying, "Livvy, you want to see the owls?"

We arrived at the perfect moment- owl feeding time!

(Andrew either being a class clown... or doing his best owl impression?)

The lady told us all about the barred owl

Then we headed off to explore the museum. These two cracked me up the entire time. I never had to worry about either of them getting separated from me because if I said to go one way and one of them didn't listen... then the other one would corral their friend and get them to follow me. They both took turns keeping an eye on one another... so I just took pictures of the fun :)

They helped me hunt all over the museum to find two stools so that they both could look through the microscopes.

Most people that saw them playing together thought they were twins.



They did such an excellent job sharing toys and helping one another. It was really fun to watch. I loved when Andrew would say, "No, it's Livvy's turn" (when another kid would try and take a turn instead of her).


They were a great mailman/woman team! Livvy pushed the mailbag and Andrew grabbed the mail from the mailbox and shoved it in her bag.


They were both enthralled with these magnetic boards and sat playing with them silently for awhile.


After the museum we headed to the park.


When we had snacks, they both wanted to lean against the tree together and eat.


After park time, we went out for a quick lunch. While I ordered, they both sat happily at the table and entertained one another. Their giddiness brought the attention of several of the people at the restaurant who gave me looks like I was insane... and several people told me how cute my twins were as they stared at my pregnant stomach with facial expressions that showed they thought I was crazy :) It was really funny.


Fortunately only one person felt the need to give me parenting advice :)


We had so much fun giggling at lunch while talking about all the fun animals we'd seen at the museum. These two were such goofballs together! I loved every minute of our morning! We will have to do it again soon.

Quick Visit

This weekend my dad decided to "surprise" my mom for their 32nd wedding anniversary and come out to visit their favorite grandson (and his parents).

It was a whirlwind weekend packed full of fun and we were SOOO sad when we dropped them off at the airport this afternoon!

My favorite thing to do was watch Andrew reading and cuddling with my mom and dad. It was adorable.


They also joined us at soccer practice. Andrew LOVED having an entourage following him around... and wasn't content unless everyone was involved and paying attention to him.



I didn't take nearly enough pictures because we were so busy just having fun!

Highlights included...

- a day of maternity shopping (and some baby shopping) with my mom... which included a trip to Mrs. Fields for lots of yummy cookies!

- car shopping/test driving and a trip to the Pet Store for the guys

- trips to Cheesecake Factory and Fuddruckers

- dad & mom both helping team teach our Sunday lessons (dad in Gospel Principles w/ Kevin and mom in YWs with me)

- Sunday afternoon walk with mom

- Family trip to a ward baptism (first one Kevin conducted as Ward Mission Leader)

- Making brownies and cookies with mom (for ward baptism)

Wow! The weekend went by way too fast and we are exhausted!

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad! Thanks for spending your special day with us!

Home Again!!

After Kevin's short stint as a Smurf with his Sm-oogle team members at CAREoke for the Kids in NYC... and lots of hours of actually doing work too :-)


He arrived HOME late Friday night with some of our favorite things from NYC!!

Dunkin Donuts (mostly for my parents... but I helped myself to part of one)

Freshly made Black & White cookies just for me!!
I savored these all weekend and just finished them today.

Some cute presents for Andrew man and baby Caitlin!
(Andrew put his sweatshirt on immediately)

Kevin is trying to hard to "pretend" that the NY on baby Caitlin's onesie doesn't represent the NY Yankees :)

We are SOOO glad to have Kevin back!
Hopefully I'll be tagging along on his next trip to NYC!

Packed day full of fun in SF!

This afternoon we met up with the Balenas for a trip to Zeum (SF's Children's Museum). The kids rode the carousel and ran after pigeons... and then we went inside the museum for some fun.



Their favorite exhibit involved this slide w/ a green screen and a video camera... so as they slid down the slide, they watched themselves in movies with different backgrounds.


They also made some paper bag puppets and played with puppets in the puppet theater


My favorite part was watching them make their own music video. Andrew played back up on guitar and Grace & George rocked "If you're happy and you know it." Andrew also attempted "Please Please Me" solo... but they only played the music (without words), so he was lost and just stood there looking cute... and then took a bow at the end. He was very proud of himself and loved watching the video of himself standing in front of the microphone (not singing) all afternoon. I won't post it... it was too boring.


"If You're Happy and You Know it" Music Video rehearsal
(Liz & I were laughing so hard I could barely hold the video camera)

After some snacks and more pigeon chasing, we said "Happy Birthday" to this cute birthday girl... and then we said bye to the Balenas and we headed off to the Marina.


Our goal was to go running from the Yacht Club to the bottom of the GG bridge and back. I almost gave up a few times as the fog started pouring in... but we made it. The entire run wasn't more than a 5K, but because the path is sand and rocks... and the wind was blowing full force trying to push us backwards... it felt like more than just 5K.


I bribed Andrew to stay in the stroller by telling him on the way back we'd play at the beach. It worked- he sang and ate snacks... and then enjoyed playing at the beaches on our way back... chasing more birds.


You can see some of the fog creeping over the hills in this picture. I loved that we brought three wardrobe changes on our trip today... including winter coats. Yes, summer in SF is chilly!



We also watched the kite boarders. One of the guys came and talked to Andrew and the little dude was soooo excited!



After our run I was freezing... so we headed to my favorite spot in the city for a little hot cocoa and some entertainment.


The pigeons and sea gulls in Ghirardelli Square are always plentiful... so little dude yelled at them to come down from the roof...



... and tried his hardest to reach them


Poor kid had his pants falling down all day. He needs a belt. I've never had that problem, so I always forget to buy him belts. His waist is too skinny. We've had these jeans since last summer and they still don't fit! (size 2T... maybe bc he hasn't gained any weight since then?).


After watching the guitar player at Ghirardelli Square and then grabbing some dinner at the Wharf, I pushed Andrew up several hills back to our free parking spot (quite a feat before 6pm in SF).

We were wiped out.


If only I could've cuddled up and gone to sleep too... I was exhausted!

Fortunately by the time we headed home (7pm), traffic all the way back home was light and we made it back in about 35-40 minutes. It was perfect. We left our house at 11am though... so that was one LONG but fun day!