Our new ride!

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in a . . . mini van? Yup. Joe and I are now officially ready for the baby. It wasn't enough to have diapers and clothing; we needed to get a bigger car also. Really, it's not so silly once you hear our reason - the Liberty (while fun to drive) just wasn't going to be a practical fit when you factor in our stuff, baby stuff, baby and dog when going on trips to visit family and friends. I did not want to get into the (expensive) habit of having to board Indi while we visited folks, and I didn't want her to be shoved in the back of the liberty with all the stuff we'll have to pack, so the only option we could see was a mini van.

The dreaded "M" word. It was Joe's idea really. I had always said I would drive a nice Volvo station wagon, but when looking at and pricing those, we realized they offered no more room than the Liberty and were MUCH more expensive. So, we'll be selling the Liberty and keeping the Camry (Joe has finally learned to embrace the Camry after much resistance) so all in all, a great deal! And we were able to GET a great deal on the Odyssey because the 2008s were coming into the stores and the dealers were anxious to get rid of the 2007s. Suited us just fine!

Aside from a minor snafu involving the color of the van (Joe requested a dark gray; the dealer heard him say dark cherry) and an extra day to fix said snafu, it was a very painless quick transaction. The way every car buying experience should be but rarely is. I strongly recommend test driving one day, deciding on the car, then calling dealers who have that car and haggling price over the phone. We arrived at the dealer and all we had to do was sign paperwork. No high pressure sales, only small amounts of sleaze.

Meet the new member of our family: a 2007 Honda Odyssey in Nimbus Gray. (And before you all say "Eeww! A mini van!" you should see how smoothly it drives!)