New Baby, New Van

With a new baby coming, Calvin decided that we needed to look for a different vehicle. I was willing to just make do with the Durango, but after some convincing on his part, decided that it would be much easier to have a vehicle with a little more space. The Durango had a bench seat in the middle, and all three car seats would not have fit, so one or both girls would have had to be in the back and then we would have had to deal with flipping a side seat up and down all the time. Add to that the fact that I babysit and need to take other children with me occasionally and I was sold on getting something different. Calvin really didn't want a minivan, but after measuring our garage, realized that any SUV larger than our Durango would not fit in the garage unless we took everything out of it and found somewhere else to store it all. So once he came to terms with that fact, we began looking at minivans. :) After several weeks of him casually looking online, he happened to drive by a Chrysler Town and Country in Hoopeston that caught his eye. We test drove it after Christmas and liked it, but weren't ready to buy the first thing we saw. After a few more days of research, we decided to try and find a Honda Odyssey to test drive as well and see which we liked better. After an entire day of driving around, we found one we liked in Kankakee. Then came the struggle with deciding which one to buy. Both had features we liked and we knew and talked to people who had each kind and loved theirs respectively. But in the end we decided that the Odyssey would be the best for our family. We bought it right before the new year. Overall, I really like having a minivan. There's so much more room for everything than in the Durango. The seats are much more comfortable, and there's a lot of cool features on it that the Durango didn't have. The girls absolutely love it too! They were ecstatic when we came home with it. Ever since riding with their Aunt Ang in her van, they've been in love with minivans and "sliding doors". As Chloe told me for several days after her ride with Ang, "Mommy, I really, really want a van". Their favorite parts are the "magic doors" that open by themselves, the shades that are built into their windows, and of course, the DVD player. The only thing I miss is my 4-wheel drive, especially with this last bit of snow that we just had, but I'm sure I'll learn to adjust. I'm just excited for how this vehicle will make my life so much easier when the baby is born.