Riding Higher

We have finally made that step from car to mini-van. Kelly had a meeting 2 Fridays ago and before we went he said that we should go to the car dealers and "just look" at vans. This was the very first time he had mentioned this. We have long ago outgrown our Camry. Since watching my nephew, every seat was taken. Kelly took the day off one day and we realized he was going to have to take his own car if we wanted to go somewhere. Hunter was in the passenger seat and Kora, Mylie and Luke were in the back. Kelly had been researching vans for awhile. I had done my own little research months ago and really liked the options available for the Toyota Sienna. After the meeting Kelly asked me which dealer we should go to first. He had narrowed it down to the Dodge Caravan, Toyota Sienna and the Honda Odyssey. Since I knew I already liked the Sienna I asked him if we could go to the Toyota Dealer first. We looked at the Sienna. Something we were looking for was Automatic sliding doors. This meant we had to at least go with the LE and above. It was beautiful and had so many standard options. We took a test drive and were hooked. We got into the office and sat down. Kelly told them that it was late so we weren't going to make a deal tonight but if they gave us the very best deal that they could tonight, we would be back in the morning. They came back and Kelly wasn't happy with it so we started to leave. They stopped us and Kelly told them that he told them to give us the very best deal that they could and if that was the best deal then we were done. They told him they could do more and next thing you know we are signing paperwork and cleaning out my old Camry. We left the dealship at midnight. I'm so proud of Kelly. I have never seen him negotiate. He's a tough one to deal with. Those guys had no chance.

I have had my van for a little over a week and I love it. We considered buying a van a year or two ago because we always knew we wanted a bigger family (okay, no this isn't an announcement....no plans yet.). At that time, the idea of me getting a van freaked me out. I must have grown a lot in the year or two since last time because I was actually excited this time. I LOVE my van. It's amazingly fun to drive and actually handles better than my car did. The kids are loving the extra space....and the van actually seats 8. One thing I am loving is how much higher I sit in the van. Cars are so low to the ground. I feel like I can see everything and don't have to position my car to see around large vehicles. Love it!!!