I Had a Dream...

...that one day--on a day or our choosing--we would trade in our minivan for a newer, cleaner, nicer, more modern minivan.

...that one day--on a day of our choosing--we would do consumer investigating as to the make, model and year of minivan we would want and might be able to afford.

...that one day--on a day of our choosing--we would get a babysitter and go test drive minivans of the makes and models we had researched and probably laughingly call it "date night".

...that one day--on a day of our choosing--we would fork over hard-earned savings set aside for the down payment for our new minivan....

And then I woke up to the reality of a radiator leak.

As Alan puts it, "the button popped out on the turkey to let us know that it's DONE".  And so our weekend turned into emergency vehicle shopping.  This time, we could at least drive the vehicle we wished to trade (which was NOT the case the last time around), although we did enjoy the lovely aroma of burning anti-freeze all afternoon. 

We DID manage to farm the kids out to three separate adult-supervised locations on Saturday and spent several hours test-driving two vans, talking with sales people, getting CarFax reports, and making logistical telephone calls regarding said vehicles and child care arrangements (mostly the latter). 
Also, I had done a bunch of research a few months back so we did have some ideas about what we did and didn't want.  However, we really wanted to test drive a Honda Odyssey but apparently--due to the recent recall--you CAN'T test drive them, and won't be able to for a month or so, so I guess we didn't want one of those anyway! 

In the end we managed to commandeer a strong contender--a 2006 Toyota Sienna--for a weekend long test drive.  Margo is one smart sales lady: she might as well have put a kitten in our hands and dared us not to fall in love.  Despite Toyota's recent "media activity", we've heard many good things about the company and the Sienna in particular, so we're feeling pretty good about this.



Meanwhile, our smelly old Windstar (which served us well until the end) is sitting at Linnehan's in Brewer with nothing in it except two gallons of water, a jug of anti-freeze and hardly any gas in the tank. 

On Monday we'll see what they came up with for financing (we're hoping for something good since Alan's old college buddy works in the loan department!).  Most likely the "kitten" will have found a home.

My new dream?
Of a minivan that remains free of french fries and cheerio's and melted crayons and trash...

Alan says that's pretty ambitious.