Our New MiniMini Van

That wasn't a type-o. We have a new car. Well, bigger than a car but small than a mini van...I think it's called a microvan. The Altmia, at 120,000 miles has been giving us trouble for the past 6 months. We figured it wouldn't last until we go overseas. So since we'd have to get something else when it dies or when we have another child, we figured we should get a larger car so we could enjoy it a long as possible. Damien had never wanted an SUV or MiniVan because of the poor gas mileage so he looked for station wagons. But there just aren't any out there with a third row. So we came across a Mazda 5. It gets about as good of gas mileage as our Altima, but has three rows to fit 6 people (2 seats per row). It's smaller than a minivan which will leave us with less storage with more children. Joel is driving down with us at Christmas so we'll be testing out the luggage on the roof. We would have liked to get an older car, but the first year they were build was 2006 so that's what we bought (luckily, even new they are pretty affordable). There aren't many around so we drove to Winchester (about 50miles away) to look at this one when it came up. It actually had more "gadgets" that we necessarily wanted, but we thought it was a good price and they were giving us a deal for the Altima. The kids seem to like it. In fact, Micaiah, who often cries in the car, has made a complete change. He loves sitting in the back row because it is higher than the other's and he can see really well! I LOVE the unexpected sunroof and navigation system way more than I thought I would - especially since I'd never thought I'd get something like that. We're really thankful that God has provided it for us and that we have a reliable car as we travel to churches and to visit family. It was really sad to say goodbye to the Altima. It was our first new car that we bought in 2000! Orin seems to have had a hard time letting go as well. When we said that this is our new car he would say, "Our car is broken." (the Altima has been in the shop a lot so he was familiar with it being gone for short periods of time.) When we tell him no, we gave it to someone else and we're going to use this car from now on he says, "No, our car is broken and they're going fix it." Oh, well, I'm sure he'll learn to love it!

Bye, bye, Altima!