New Van

There was a time not so long ago, that i swore i would never drive a mini van, it just wasn't my style. Well two kids later i had to admit that cramming them in the car was not the best idea either. So five years ago we bought our first mini van, and i hate to admit it, but i loved it. Well that van was great for our growing family, but 2 more kids and 75,000 miles later we decided it was time for another van.

My problem was trying to find a van that had low miles but would also be one that my family could grow in. I figure we buy i new van i want to drive it for the next 5-6 years, well that puts my oldest at 14 (GASP!!) and with 3 growing boys i know i am going to need room. The other concern for me was finding a van was finding one that would help Dylan. When we bought out first van Dylan had just been diagnosed with CP and was still very small, we never really thought that the van would be a problem. Well he is now 6 years old, and just a big kid. He is about the size of 9 year old versus a six year old. Then you add in his weakness on his right side and creates another problem. See Dylan sits in way back with Morgan, so that the younger two can be closer to me. Well the walk way between the middle seats in mini vans are very narrow, especially when they have cup holders attached to the side of the middle seat. So Dylan would trip over the cup holder, fall, and land in this VERY narrow space and get stuck. It was just frustrating for both of us, he would panic because he was stuck and really two weak to maneuver himself out of the tight narrow spot, and i am not really strong enough, nor was there enough room for me to climb back there and try to get him out either. So after this happened 4 or 5 times i mentioned my frustrations to Brian and we decided it was time for something different.

Well the problem was we noticed that most mini vans have the narrow walk way with the cup holders on the sides. We just could not find something that was wider without having to go to like a Tahoe, or a suburban. So we finally decided on a new Uplander. Its very similar to the Montana before, but its has far less miles, and we also removed the cup holders making at least 6 inches more room on the center aisle (i am hoping this is enough room). Hopefully in the next 2 years or so we can move the younger two, to the back seat and put Dylan in the middle and that should hopefully fix any remaining problems.

So i am enjoying my new van (and trying to avoid snowbanks-long story) and today is the first day i actually was able to drive it. Brian was not sharing yesterday and thought HE had to drive it everywhere...men! The kids love it because it has the dvd system, they think its great and yesterday on the way to church it was the quietest ride we have had since we started having kids:)

So if you see a metallic brown van around town it might be me, feel free to wave, i will try to wave back but i am learning that both hands on the steering wheel is best for me:)

Steph