A New Addition

No, I did NOT go into labor early. This is a new addition of another sort.

Today we went out to breakfast and decided on a whim to stop and look at some vehicles today. We've been toying with the idea of getting a new vehicle for probably at least a year now, but honestly, just the finances have been holding us back. With gas prices the way they are, and trying to live more environmentally conscious, I really didn't want to upgrade vehicle sizes. However, we are in a fairly unique situation. Anytime we have family visit they arrive via plane, meaning that I have to pick them up from the airport and then rely on our vehicles to go places. Which means, 2 months from now, it would be literally impossible for me to even pick up my parents from the airport in my Nissan Sentra. 2 car seats, 3 adults, and luggage? Not gonna happen. Going to McDonald's down the street with our immediate family and my parents would require 2 vehicles. That isn't so appealing. Anyway, we really thought we needed something bigger, but, like I said, who WANTS a larger car payment? Let me restate that, who wants a car payment at all? We are currently paid off on our vehicles which is an awesome feeling!

Anyway, we decided to at least "look" today.

So I bet you can guess were this post is going to lead....

First we went to Nissan, because Al and I have both owned Nissan's (and I currently do) and we've been very pleased with them. They had nothing in stock to help us out. NOTHING!

We decided to cross the street to Honda because Al wanted to look at the Honda Pilot. I had heard good things about it too, but as soon as I saw inside, I knew it wasn't for us. Not only could I physically not get myself into the 3rd row, but there was very, very limited storage behind the 3rd row. So much for toting around a double stroller! And I'm not about to drive around a full size SUV, so it looked like I was out of luck and we were back to the drawing table.

The salesman asked us to "humor" him and take a look at the Odyssey. I was fine with the idea and had heard great things about the Odyssey. Not to mention that my grandparents have had one for years and love it. But if you know Al you know he is STRONGLY opposed to the idea of a mini van. I sort of understand where he's coming from, but in all honesty, I'm all about practicality now. The Odyssey was gorgeous! He begrudgingly took the thing on a test drive and disliked it, saying it drove like a car (which is what I truly wanted). I got in the driver's seat next and I was amazed how nicely it drove. Al agreed that he loved the comfort and we couldn't argue with the amenities. We just weren't going to get that type of storage and comfort in that price range in an SUV of any sort.

It has a "sportier" body style than the typical image that comes to mind when you say "mini van"...or at least we're telling ourselves that.
It has a really cool seat in the center of the 2nd row. It folds down to give the appearance of 2 captain's chairs (and you can even push the 2 chairs together), but it also can be used as an 8th seat. Obviously it would really only fit a child, but it's still a nice feature.
As you can see, the seats can be arranged in various ways, which I won't bore you with, but will at least just provide a photo of some of the options.
Some other cool features:

• The video screen on the rear view mirror that allows me to see the view behind me when I back up. Wahoo, hopefully I'll never have to report that I backed over Tyler's tricycle!
• Heated seats. Utterly useless in Florida, but probably cool once we get to North Carolina and somewhere that offers a climate other than oppressive heat.
  
• Tons o' cup holders. Tyler loves this as well. Doesn't everyone love the option of where to store your sippy cup?
• Various climate centers (or some other fancy term). Basically, as Tyler puts it "I have my own air conditioning, like on an airplane." Honestly I don't find airplane seats to be luxurious, but obviously the individual overhead fan on a plane is a selling point for a 3-year-old, thus his fascination with this feature.
  
• "Automatic doors" says Tyler. Infant seat in one hand, unruly toddler attached to the other, and the option to open my doors hands-free! How cool is that? Don't be surprised if I hearby refer to them as "magic doors", as Tyler thinks "automatic" and "magic" are one in the same.
  
• Storage galore. I don't know anyone who doesn't like storage!
• 6-disc CD changer. Wow, I can have the Backyardigans AND my Wicked CD in there at the same time! Options, my friends, options are wonderful!
• Power moon roof. You can see the stars.
• Attached pull-down window shades (the kind that you normally have to hang up on the windows to shield your newborn from deadly sun rays). These ones don't even have Elmo on them. Plain black. Go figure!
• Side curtain airbags. Nothing witty to say about that, but it makes me VERY happy!
  

Al has a whole other different list of cool features, none of which really matter to me (as they would all be engine based or something boring like that) but they were enough for him to be won over.

Well, after much discussion, we are now the proud owners of a 2008 Honda Odyssey E-XL.Al will now acquire my 2002 Nissan Sentra, as that is WAY better on gas mileage than his old clunker SUV, lovingly referred to as the "Ford EXPLODer". We figure that will save us almost $240 a month in his driving expenses, and since I don't drive too far, we shouldn't acquire too much more expenses in that area.

We enjoyed a nice dinner out to Red Lobster tonight to celebrate. We joked that this would be our last meal out as we now have a huge car payment. Hey, at least if we wanted to eat out, we'd only have to take one vehicle!

And, just so it's on the record, Al now LOVES driving it. Just don't tell any of his friends!