Like before, we were just pretending or something but now that we have a minivan, we're legitimately responsible for offspring. Shit just got real. There's no turning back now...
We traded in our Ford Explorer, which we really liked, for this gem. We only had the Explorer for a year and a half. We got it right before Gracyn was born thinking it was going to be the perfect family vehicle. Fast forward to our first road trip and all of the crap that comes with a newborn and a dog that weighs 100 pounds and the Ford Explorer feels not so big. Not to mention we couldn't get in the car from the passenger side when it was parked in our super-narrow garage.
Fast forward again to finding out baby #2 was on her way and me having a full-on meltdown trying to figure out how I was going to load not one, but TWO kids into the car every morning when I can't even utilize half of the doors (I'm a little dramatic when I'm pregnant but thiswas is a BIG deal!). The carseats are so big you can't lift one over the other from the driver's side. The rear-facing infant car seat only fits in the middle meaning Gracyn was going to have sit either behind the driver and be crushed anytime Justin was driving (daddy longlegs), or sit on the passenger side which meant the lucky front-seat occupant a very comfortable knees-meet-dashboard setup going on. Not great.
Enter the minivan. It took some convincing, but Justin finally came around to the idea of driving a Mom Mobile. It just made sense.
There's enough room for our growing family and all of our crap - we plan on driving this bad boy into the ground so it's gonna be around for awhile. Kids only get bigger which means we'll only have more stuff as the years go by.
We can park it in the garage AND load kids from both sides (hello, sliding doors!). I didn't care about anything else - as long as we could easily get people/things in and out, I was good.
BOTH carseats fit side-by-side with plenty of room for Justin to adjust his seat to a comfortable position and we can still access the 3rd row easily.
Justin really wanted a leather interior similar to the Explorer - he got it. I grew accustomed to the Explorer's backup camera and was afraid I could never safely drive a car without one again. We lucked out and our new-to-us van (it's a 2011 Honda Odyssey) has a backup cam, too. Yessss.
And the most-important feature of all? The underlying reason we traded in our old vehicle in the first place? A lower payment.
Sending 2 kids to daycare is no joke and we're still trying to figure out exactly how we'll make it work on a monthly basis but this was a start. Even though we were essentially starting over on a car loan, the money we could save on a monthly payment was worth it.
Gracyn likes it too, so everyone's happy. The Oakley Family will be ridin' in style. Look out, world!
We traded in our Ford Explorer, which we really liked, for this gem. We only had the Explorer for a year and a half. We got it right before Gracyn was born thinking it was going to be the perfect family vehicle. Fast forward to our first road trip and all of the crap that comes with a newborn and a dog that weighs 100 pounds and the Ford Explorer feels not so big. Not to mention we couldn't get in the car from the passenger side when it was parked in our super-narrow garage.
Fast forward again to finding out baby #2 was on her way and me having a full-on meltdown trying to figure out how I was going to load not one, but TWO kids into the car every morning when I can't even utilize half of the doors (I'm a little dramatic when I'm pregnant but this
Enter the minivan. It took some convincing, but Justin finally came around to the idea of driving a Mom Mobile. It just made sense.
There's enough room for our growing family and all of our crap - we plan on driving this bad boy into the ground so it's gonna be around for awhile. Kids only get bigger which means we'll only have more stuff as the years go by.
We can park it in the garage AND load kids from both sides (hello, sliding doors!). I didn't care about anything else - as long as we could easily get people/things in and out, I was good.
BOTH carseats fit side-by-side with plenty of room for Justin to adjust his seat to a comfortable position and we can still access the 3rd row easily.
Justin really wanted a leather interior similar to the Explorer - he got it. I grew accustomed to the Explorer's backup camera and was afraid I could never safely drive a car without one again. We lucked out and our new-to-us van (it's a 2011 Honda Odyssey) has a backup cam, too. Yessss.
And the most-important feature of all? The underlying reason we traded in our old vehicle in the first place? A lower payment.
Sending 2 kids to daycare is no joke and we're still trying to figure out exactly how we'll make it work on a monthly basis but this was a start. Even though we were essentially starting over on a car loan, the money we could save on a monthly payment was worth it.
Gracyn likes it too, so everyone's happy. The Oakley Family will be ridin' in style. Look out, world!
 |
| she's happy, i swear. |
We just got one for our baby too! We got a letter in the mail that the local car dealership needed older inventory and were willing to give me $1000 additional towards my trade. I decided to go down and not mention the coupon, and worked for the best price. Once there, then I showed my coupon and they actually honored it to my surprise and joy.
ReplyDeleteJacob @ Bestway Autos