(Another) New Arrival!

The new addition: A Honda Odyssey EXL. We chose charcoal gray and were happy to later learn (thanks, Julia!) that HGTV recommends charcoal gray as the best color for transporting children. Apparently it hides the dirt better than the other colors. :)

Eddie is testing the quality of the leather... He approved.

And of course he wanted a chance to drive, too. :)

For those of you who have been patiently waiting for an update on our mini-van saga - yes! We bought it! Last Saturday we trekked to the dealership (thanks to Jonathan for watching our boys for much longer than we anticipated!) and signed the papers making us proud new mini-van owners. I'm not going to lie, there was much trepidation and surprisingly it was from me. Maybe because the economy has been so volatile lately? Or that we have a string of visitors, holidays, and of course a new baby on the way that had me nervous agreeing to spend so much at this particular point in life... but with Justin's reassurance and a continuous mental affirmation that if we didn't buy this month we'd be buying in two months anyway I swallowed my fear and shut my mouth.

Interestingly we were unable to take home our new van because it was on empty and alas there was still no gas to be found at any of the stations near the dealership. Since the vehicle comes with a 'free tank of gas' we had no qualms about leaving it there until they were able to accommodate us! (A tank of gas is $70!) Sunday - no gas. Monday - no gas. FINALLY - yesterday afternoon we were able to go pick up our new car and bring it home.

After naps I loaded up the kids' car seats and we took our first trip - (which happened to be to Wal-Mart of all places) and I bought a pint of Haagen-Daaz mango sorbet and three apples to celebrate our new purchase. I had to justify the use of gas, right? :) It feels great to be surrounded by so much space while driving and the boys love their new views. I'll admit that there was a time (pre-child #2) when Justin and I had sworn to ourselves that we would never own a mini-van. I think this stemmed from his childhood wherein neither of his parents liked mini-vans and always drove big SUV's instead. However, with fuel prices and most importantly CONVENIENCE we changed our minds when Eddie came along. Justin had a harder time accepting the mini-van idea and found plenty of good deals on large SUV's for me to look over, but it always came down to the kids: Jack and Eddie (and our future children) can easily climb into the mini-van on their own and with sliding doors I don't have to strain to reach and buckle my growing boys.

So here we are - a happy family with a mini-van. (At least until we run out of seats and need to upgrade to the industrial-sized vehicle. :)