Farewell to Another Long-Time Friend

We traded in the Chevy Venture today. After two days of it stalling on Mike, he decided that even if it was an easy fix, it wasn't a good idea to have an almost 11 year old, potentially unreliable van as our main family car. Last night I found a car at Carmax.com that looked pretty good to me, so we went there today and ended up buying it. We both feel like it was a good decision. I've always said I would buy new again since we keep our cars forever, but this car stood out to me, and Mike felt really good about it. And after test driving it today and looking at the sticker price, I felt good about it, too. (We did buy a 4yr/48K mile warranty.)

So, here's the tribute to our Venture:


1998 Chevrolet Venture

You've been puked on, peed on, mistreated in every way possible and yet you took it all. You've been from Valdosta, GA to NYC, from Topsail Island to Dallas. You've seen our family through 11 years of growing and adventure, and for all of this we are grateful. You can go off to car heaven, if that is your fate, knowing you have served your purpose fuller than most cars can even dream of.

Thank you.
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Our new car is a 2004 Toyota Sienna LE. It has the 8 passenger seating which will work well with the addition of the baby's car seat. And it has some additional features that aren't standard like: Trip computer, side curtain airbags, 17" alloy wheels, power sliding door, and maybe another one or two that I'm not thinking of right now. It is Salsa Red Pearl which is my favorite of the Sienna colors. That's a nice little bonus for me. We hope to enjoy this car for years to come.


And it's a funny thought to me that the only house and car that my older kids can even remember will not be part of this new baby's life at all. I guess it's just more things to say, "That was before you were born" to. I hear John F likes it when things like that come up in conversation... :)