Big Red

Tweety, our lovely white van.

 We bought this beautiful white van around the time our third child was a baby.  She is now almost 9 years old and for the past year our lovely white van has been sending us a loud message in the form of incessant squeaks and expensive repairs.  She wanted to go.

First of all the squeak.  She squeaked so much hence the name Tweety!  We replaced the belt four times, had them lubricated, replaced the tensioner pulley and the idler pulley.   All this and she still insisted on squeaking.  Everyone around knew it was us coming when they heard the squeak.  It was very humbling.

So then there were the repairs.  We had our alternator go, then the battery needed to be changed, then the battery cables.  The list started growing.  In the midst off all this we were one day stranded with a dead battery at the kids' school after volleyball practice.  I was so embarrassed, but a lady came to give us a jump.  A bunch of the girls' teammates were standing around the car watching us hook up the cables.  I braced myself, because I knew that the second the car started they would all be subjected to the deafening squeak.  It all played out as I predicted.  The girls and I jumped in the car and drove away quickly agreeing that that was one of the most embarrassing moments of our lives.

After everything was fixed and I had finally found a lubricant that would keep the squeaky sound down for about five miles before needing to be reapplied, I was satisfied that I could still live with this car.  I was not interested in the financial burden that would come with purchasing a new vehicle.  Well, one day as I was driving down the road I looked down and saw that the speedometer was not working.  "Ok, ok," I thought.  "I get it.  I will get a new car."

Goodbye Tweety, we love you.

 So we decided to buy something larger than a minivan because the kids are getting bigger and it was becoming increasingly squishy on long trips.  We also felt bad that we could never take other people with us.  We looked at Suburbans, but I wasn't keen on the kids having to climb over things to get to their seats.  Plus I love the under the seat storage of vans.  I grew up with a 12 passenger van and Dad had a 15 passenger.  We talked about which kind to get and we decided that we might just as well get the bigger size so we could haul the youth and scouts to all their activities.  Not to mention, on long trips the kids can all have their own bench!!

Hello Big Red

 This van was meant to be ours.  When I found her I knew she was mine.  She even has a DVD player mounted on the ceiling, which the kids think is THE BEST feature.  I like having some space to spread out. When Richard's brother came we had his family of six, our family of seven and Grandma Vance all in the van together with one seat belt to spare.  It was hilarious!!!

Saturday is Mr. M's first time going to the temple.  He is so excited to have all his friends ride in our new van.  He has already picked out the movies to show on the two hour drive.

Four benches.  We love this van!!!