A Finished Room and Some Travel Talk

We finished Kloe's room (for the most part) last week.  It is a small space, so making lots of places to organize and store things really helped create order out of the chaos.  It's hard to tell from this picture, but this is a captain's bed with extra storage underneath.

We finally found her comforter at Target.  I actually really like the one she chose.  It has a mix of a lot of my favorite colors (and hers too!).   The underside is orange, and super fuzzy and soft.

Here are the "Carmel" colored walls, which she chose all on her own.  We also thinned out her stuffed animals and displayed the ones she chose to keep.  The book shelf was also one of the craigslist finds.  My girl loves to read, and she loves to collect books, but she had nowhere to put them so they were a major contributor to clutter.  This is so much better:)

I made the curtain valance with a board and some material to bring more of the aqua color into the room.  Derrick was finally able to install the ceiling fan we bought for the room over a year ago (both the bunk bed and loft bed she previously used pretty much ensured decapitation of he'd installed it any sooner).  He also fixed her closet doors, and hung the stuffed animal shelf and new mirror (he can put things on the wall straight the first time he tries.  I always make a couple extra holes in my attempts).

This is the dresser, night stand and bed I bought on craiglist. 

Aunt Bean is going to paint an owl picture with Kloe's colors to go on this empty bit of wall above the lizard's aquarium.

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy..."  My contribution to her walls:)

Most likely you can tell, but I am very excited with how her room came together.  I think this will be much easier for her to maintain. 

Now for a completely unrelated topic:

We get to leave this grey winter-ish land next week!

I have been holding in this little bit of personal happy-ness for awhile now, mostly so I don't create the winter hate mob this sort of news has a way of generating.

But now, I am too excited to care.

We are going to Cancun.  We've traveled to Mexico quite a few times, but we've never been to that part of the country.  This is also the first time we will be going to an all inclusive resort.  This is also the first time we are traveling with another couple (Deana and Rob) to such a far away place.

Yes, I am excited.

Aunt Nae is going to stay at our place with the kiddos.  We always feel a little guilty leaving the kids behind, but it is important to be able to have these times once in awhile with each other (plus we just took them to Mexico last March, so we don't feel too guilty).

My goals for this trip are:

• Don't get sick this time!! Mexico has not been very kind to me on some of our previous trips.
• Lay in the sun, and soak up mass amounts of vitamin D. 
• Play in the ocean.  Hoping for good snorkeling.
• Have fun with our friends! :)
• Write a little every day we are down there, and take lots of pictures.
• Gather great memories to carry us through to Spring.