There's a Van in my Driveway

yes my driveway, and not just a van of someone coming to visit for the day, we own it, it is ours. So what you say, lots of people have vans. While this is true lots of people do have vans, we(Carl and I) swore we would NEVER get a mini-van. I adamantly voiced my distaste of mini-vans for a long time swearing we would not, no matter how many kids we had, own one. I should have done more research before saying this, as it turns out big SUV's with the third row seating option are expensive, really expensive(at least any of the ones we would have considered to be "quality" and worth the money) and as it turns out it is rather difficult to buckle children of buckling age into their carseats in a third seat that is not all that accessible to get to. Our van however is easy as pie, I have a handy little button to push that opens both side doors where our 4 and almost 2 year old can climb in all by themselves without any assistance. The 4 year old can even climb all the way to the back where his booster seat is located and buckle himself in. Then again with the push of a button I can close both doors. It carries grocries and necessities wonderfully, we can fit a few extra people in with us and the seats fold down and come out and as Carl says we can carry plywood if needs be:) So while I still am not crazy about their looks I am crazy about the functionality of the vehicle. I'm sure my enthusiasm will only grow for its convenience as we add the third edition to our clan in less then 2 months!(seriously where has time gone) So for those of you who said oh you need to get a mini-van and I scoffed at you, I apologize. You are right they are nice, while I can no longer feel cool driving around in a non-soccer mom type of vehicle I do have the satisfaction of knowing I can get my kids, my stuff and me in and out with zero trouble:)