We haven't been able to go somewhere as a family since we had Norah. Mostly it is not a big deal, but it can be annoying. Sometimes we've even stuffed Nate in the back of the van or I've ridden on the floor. Who would have thought big vans were so hard to find? It's consumed a lot of our time, especially since it was our goal not to get into debt and we had a lot we were looking for in a van. But we finally found it and it has everything we could want and more. Fifteen passengers, running boards, it's not white....it has been so great for our family. There is so much room; we love it! It's really not that hard to drive either.
The kids wanted to name it. Their suggestions were: The Ark, Ahpa (from Avatar the cartoon - I don't know how to spell it), Thomas (for the train - that was Derek's), and I can't remember the others now. I pushed Ahpa because it is big, it is gold, and it can fly. Not really. I really wanted that name because I thought it was so cute when ever we started it Merian would say "yip, yip!"
I just have to say again that it has so much room! When ever we drive the Silhouette we all wonder how we fit/got into the seats. Especially since after we had Eliza we added another seat to fit her. We can get in and out so much easier and I know our upcoming trip to Grandma's will be so nice and we all will actually have room for our feet and my lap won't be holding anything! Now if we could just get a bigger house...
We found the van in Nampa, Idaho and had a fun trip to go get it. The roads were pretty bad and we saw quite a few accidents, but we were excited to finally be getting a van and we got to try out Tucano's. On the way home the freeway was closed and it took us and hour and a half to go 20 miles. We ended up staying in a hotel. Derek forlornly remarked, "I miss Grandma, we are so far away from America." (He's really in to the whole American thing lately. He'll use it as an excuse: "American's don't do that" when he doesn't want to do something.) It was a much better trip than when we went up to Seattle but decided not to buy the van that was obviously a convict carrier and spent all afternoon in a Krispy Kreeme parking lot using their wi-fi to try to find another one. Memories.
The kids sang for the ward Christmas program today. Eliza wanted to be a part of that and she did a great job.
I should write more of what is going on but I am so tired I can't think of anything that makes sense!
