the mini

For one whole week the May family has been proud owners of a 2008 Dodge Caravan. We are officially old :/ Originally we had thought we could keep the trailblazer as our family car until we had three kids. The first time we put both boys in it however we knew there was NO WAY we could fit them, daisy and all our stuff on our numerous driving trips so we started researching for a minivan. Zach was super excited. Me, not so much!

The first thing I told him was I will not drive a red or hunter green van and I will NOT get a Dodge Caravan. Not that I didn't love family vacations, but I had way too many memories of sitting in a little bench seat with Jennifer's feet all over me while an ice chest, pillows, books, etc sat under my feet on the van floor. We researched mainly toyotas and hondas but they seemed out of our price range. Finally we found a town and country at a dealership in Gainesville, which just happens to be where Zach's parents live, so we drove up for the weekend to visit and van shop.

The second I got into that town and country I knew it was not going to happen. There was wood grain on the dash. WOOD GRAIN! All I needed were my pearls and dooney and burke purse and off I'd go to my Woman's Club meeting. NO THANK YOU! Across from the van we were looking at was this boxy, suvish looking van. It looked kind of cool, for a van anyway :) When I walked over and saw it was a Caravan I told Zach I was about to eat my words. The minute we sat in it I was sold. It had black carpet and a white-gray interior. Can you say Zebra anyone?!? We test drove it and loved it and then planned to drive it to show Zach's dad. On the way there we took a detour to the Honda dealership just to see what they had. Low and behold in their lot was a 2008 Dodge Caravan. The minute we told the dealer we were testing the exact same car from another lot he went straight to mega salesman mode. He offered us everything but the kitchen sink to buy from them. Since Zach and I are HORRIBLE at life sometimes we had no idea what to do so we ended up driving BOTH vans to his parents' house. We lined the side by side and looked at everything. It was a pretty funny sight to see.

In the end we went for the first one and are happy with our decision. At the request of my brother, who apparently won't leave me blog comments unless he wants something, here are some pics of our mini.