Hello . . . New Bessie!
As of July 8th, we are the proud owners of a new minivan, a 2015 Honda Odyssey. Nick's brother Sam and his fiancée Suzy expressed interest awhile ago in eventually buying our 2005 Toyota Corolla. That sent Nick on a quest to find the safest replacement vehicle possible. We would love to have the most fuel efficient vehicle out there too, but with two small kids, one of them obsessed with safety, safety had to take precedence. Here in Northern Wisconsin big trucks are quite popular. There are times I park in the grocery store parking lot behind a truck and the top of the Corolla is level with the bumper of the truck. In an accident we would be crushed.
A little over a month ago they asked if they could buy the car from us when the Robertsons gather at our house the last weekend in July. My parents and grandma came to visit Fourth of July weekend (post coming soon!) so during Lilly's nap we snuck out and test drove the minivan. We both liked it, I didn't driving with the salesman in the car, but really liked the van. We got some quotes on the different models (not the top of the line one that comes with a built in vacuum cleaner) and went home. Nick called two other dealerships to get prices. The one in Eau Claire was roughly the same but the dealership in Duluth was about $3000 less. That is quite a bit of savings, so Nick called back the dealership here and said left a message saying, "This is what they said, we would prefer to keep our business with you but they have the better deal. Can you match it?"
We didn't hear back until Monday evening while we were all playing fire truck/ambulance/nurse/doctor in the living room. The salesman said okay but you have to commit tonight. Yikes! Nick and I take centuries to make decisions and you want us to decide tonight?!? Luckily we had been talking about a new minivan for over a year, so it wasn't a totally cold decision, it was just if we wanted this minivan. We talked while playing, telling Lilly we needed two minutes to talk, then we would play, and then talk again. Decision was made - we would buy the van contingent on Nick driving it one more time. After putting Lilly to bed he went off and came home saying we are buying it! He put $100 down to hold it for us while we squared away financing.
Wednesday we met at the dealership and signed all the paperwork. We now had three cars and two drivers. The salesman offered to drive it to our house and had a co-worker follow him. Our goal was to install Lilly's car seat by the time we were to pick her up from day care but that didn't happen. When I picked her up in the Sienna (now named Ketchup) I told her there was a surprise waiting for her at home. She was pretty excited. We let her climb all over and explore. Wednesday night we installed her car seat and she rode to Tree Top in style on Thursday.
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