Goodbye, Old Friend. Hello, new Minivan

I didn't realize how attached to our Honda I was until we decided to trade it in for a minivan. We didn't even consider trading it in at first. But when we found a van that we wanted, we started considering ways we could shorten the length of our loan and have less out-of-pocket, since we don't like being in debt as much as we can help it. We bought the Honda with cash, and we didn't want to give up a completely owned car for years of debt to get a new one. Once we made that decision, it all happened so fast. We sat in the Volkswagen dealership with our screaming, crazy kids at 9:30 p.m. at night, handed over our Honda key, got our new van keys, and that was it. I didn't even get to say goodbye, really. We drove to the dealership in our good, reliable Honda, and left with a sleek, cool van. And That was that. I did come back the next morning to clean out the rest of our stuff, but I kind of feel like I needed a few moments to sit in it alone and come to grips with letting it go!

The week we had Ana, we drove up to a park in our brand-new car with my mom and ate In-N-out. Life was good!

The Honda reminds me of so much that I miss about Palmdale, including the Joshua trees

The Honda was such a good car. I loved it, and have some good memories associated with it. Its the first newer car that we bought together. We were living in Palmdale, fresh out of college, and we were so excited about the future. We brought all three kids home from the hospital in it, me monitoring them in the back seat while Thad drove carefully home with our new baby. We drove it on fun, sporadic vacations to different beaches, took it to Washington, and for visits with family. I knew every button, how to open the hood, program stations, and change the clock. That takes time!

I kind of associate that car with the start of our post-college life together, and the beginning of our family. And now it's gone! So I'm hoping that writing this post will help me deal with my nastalgic feelings and be able to let them go.


But the close of one chapter means the opening of another! And by that, my friends, I mean that we are the official owners of a minivan! Yep, we did. And we LOVE it.