Happy Birthday!

This week, it was my birthday. About this same time two years ago, we got a minivan -- a really nice one with a lot of great features. I was a little hesitant to get one, but we were thinking ahead to the future (to when we had four kids -- which is now!) and wanted to buy a car that would really last us a good, long time. Everyone said I'd love it after a while, but I never really did. I hated a lot about that car, too -- it was a great car, and very nice, but the ride was garbage and the kids were too far back and I really disliked driving a minivan (is that TOTALLY lame of me, or what? But... I'm being really honest here. I hated it every time I got in the car.) It didn't help that we'd had a really cute, really fun car previously -- one I still regret giving up.

Fast-forward to today. We decided to sell our van and get a different car, one that would fit our family a little better and would stand the test of time (again). We put our car up for sale on kslclassifieds.com and got a few calls the first day -- and our first offer! We couldn't believe it was happening so fast, and I guess their lenders couldn't, either, because their financing fell through. We tried again, and this time we went for a couple of weeks before we lowered the price and got a couple more bites. Meanwhile, we were trying to find the perfect car, without a lot of luck. Everything was either too little trunk space, or too heavy-duty, or something -- why couldn't we find the right thing? Finally, after a really bad showing (some guy who didn't hesitate to comment on every tiny scratch, calling it "significant damage") and an okay one (the people had a friend who could get cars at auction), we decided that we'd just keep the car, keep showing it, and worry about getting a new car when we'd sold it.

The very next day, the people with the friend called to make an offer on our car -- the exact same amount the original offer had been! We accepted, decided to sign on Saturday, and the race was on. I loved a GMC Acadia, but it's just still WAY too expensive for us (maybe that can be our next car? :) There was a Durango we looked at that was super nice, but it had a middle bench (we wanted two seats in the middle and three in the back so we didn't have to move a carseat every time we needed to get into the back) and I couldn't hear Paige when I was driving down the freeway (a definite NO). We looked at car after car after car... and finally, on Tuesday, we decided to pray that we'd find the right car for our family. Not necessarily the perfect car, but one that would help us pay down the ENORMOUS gap between what we owed and what the van was worth, and that would get us from point A to point B in the maximum of comfort and ease. We were so frustrated and stressed out -- and a big part of it was that Joel was going out of town next week and we HAD to have a mode of transportation to get to his brother Kevin's wedding.

Wednesday was my birthday, and we declared it to be a no-stress day -- and it worked! We found a car -- a GMC Yukon Denali -- that had just about everything we wanted, captain's chairs in the middle row, three seats in the back, everything. Hurray -- we'd found a car! That was a big relief, because it had felt like nothing was working out.

Sadly, our search wasn't over. Most Denalis were either too big (the XL version) or had a bench in the middle, which was something we didn't want. The stress factor just kept going up until Friday night, when we realized that maybe a Denali wasn't what we were looking for, after all. My stomach hurt thinking that we were signing away our van the next day, and we still didn't have anything even close to possible. And then Joel had a great idea -- we could get the Durango and take out the middle seat, so it was only 6 seats, but that would be perfect for now, and if we have another child, then Parker would be old enough to not need a carseat any more. As for hearing Paige, we decided we could probably get leather on the seats and that would improve the sound quality, as well as being way easier to clean. We took a little trip, and found out that it was just where Paige was in the car AND a loud defroster that was the sound problem, so we don't have to get leather right away, which saves us a little (leather is surprisingly more affordable than I ever thought). As for the little trunk space, I think it will be annoying, but we'll make it work for now.

So, this is (kind of) my birthday present:
Ours is a charcoal gray color, but otherwise pretty much the same.