Our New Ride!

For the last couple years we've known that when the time came for us to trade in our Chrysler Town & Country we would buy a Honda Odyssey. For some reason...probably God planting the thought in my head....a couple weeks ago I started thinking about looking on Craigslist for a van. I just could not get the thought of my head. That weekend we went to Honda of Fife to test drive one. They had a 2006 and a 2008. The 2006 was pretty worn and it was gold. Our current van is gold and I'm not really a fan. The 2008 van was nice, but it didn't have leather and with kids you need leather. They did say they could upgrade to the leather for us, but at the time we just weren't ready to make a deal. We needed to check out our finances a bit more closely first. Last Monday night we decided that it was a good deal and we should head down there and see what we could work out. Unfortunately the van was already in the process of being bought by someone else. The salesman did say that the people trying to buy it had horrible credit so their financing might not go through. We weren't worried though I knew that God had the perfect van in store for us.

Old Town & Country Van

The very next afternoon the guy from Honda of Fife called to see if we were interested in the gold van. I told him we weren't, but if the other van came available to let us know. Then while the girls were taking their naps I decided to check online to see if there were other vans in the area that had leather already. I really didn't want to have to wait for them to put the leather seats in. I ended up finding a 2008 Odyssey EX-L at the Honda of Sumner I wanted to go check out. I called Michael and told him about it and asked him if he'd call the dealership to make sure it was still there so we didn't drive all the way down there for nothing. It was still there so after Taekwondo the kids and I went home, picked up Michael and headed out.

By the  time we got down there it was almost 7pm! Thankfully dealerships are really good about having things for kids to do. They have free popcorn for them to munch on and one of the vans was plugged in so the kids could watch a movie on the DVD player. The salesman Mike had the van waiting for us so I could take it for a test drive. Michael stayed with the kids. It wasn't much different from the 2006 I test drove at the Honda of Fife. The Odyssey drives like a car...it's great!

Anyways when we got back the salesman took the keys to my van and started doing all the research to be able to tell me what they would give us for trading it in. Of course they came back with a ridiculous number and I wasn't going to have it. I actually brought up on their computer the Kelly Blue Book price that I came up with. I told them I wanted 6K for our van and that was it. I also told him I had a check in my purse and this was what we were willing to pay. Unfortunately this is where there was a bit of a miscommunication between me and the salesman. It wasn't discovered though until the final paperwork was being signed and Michael was already installing the car seats in the van. It's okay though...I thought we were going to get a SCREAMING deal, but we still got a great deal! It was fun dealing with him by myself. I felt like a woman in charge! :)

I totally wasn't expecting them to let us take the van that night because I needed to change the check I had from Honda of Fife to Honda of Sumner. They did though! Since it was a bit unexpected we hadn't cleaned out the van. It's amazing what accumulates in all those nooks and crannies. When we had made the deal I called my parents and they came down...the dealership wasn't far from their house. It was nice to have them there to keep an eye on the kids while Michael and I did the paperwork.

When it was time to go we got pictures with the old van and the new one. It was nice that my parents got to see the old van off since my Dad bought that van for my Mom brand new for Christmas in 2000. He even had our friend Santa Al deliver it to her. When we were getting in the van Owen and Ella were quite excited about it, but Jack was SO unhappy. He kept saying he wanted our old van. Then as we got closer and closer to home Owen got more and more agitated and started saying he wanted our old van too. The next morning Owen had finally come around and now he thinks the new van is "awesome"! Jack still wanted the old one back!

We took a long trip to OR for Thanksgiving and it was so nice. It drove like a dream and the kids had fun watching a movie on the DVD player. We have told them that the DVD play is only for long trips. I'm not going to have them watching a movie every time we get in the van.