We Are Now Official Members of the Minivan Club.

There are loads of unofficially official clubs out there.  When you graduate high school, you're in the "High School Graduate" club.  When you start college, you're in the "College Student" club.  When you graduate, you're in the "College Grad" club.  When you land a job, you're in the "Welcome to Adulthood" club.  When you get married, you're in the "No Longer Single" club.  When you have a baby, you're in the "Mommy/Daddy" club.  And when you buy a minivan, you learn that handshake as well.

Then there's that......

Lucas and I bought our first minivan this morning:

Thar she blows.

It's a 2004 Nissan Quest, white with tan leather interior (I'd rather it had cloth interior, but ah well), power everything, multiple sunroofs, 2nd and 3rd row ceiling heat/AC vents, heated seats (though right now I could use some cool-my-ass down seats), DVD player, etc.  We bought the van for $5,000 off of Craigslist.  It needs a new front motor mount (whatever that is) and the odometer/gas gauge digital display needs to be sent off for repair.  The new motor mount will cost around $100 or so (to be replaced by Lucas), and the odometer/gas gauge repair will cost around $200 (also to be removed and reinstalled by Lucas).  We also need to look into fixing the part of the driver's side seat that moves the seat forward and back.  My dad says that it's often the button that needs replacing and not the actual electrical component.  Since the other parts of the seat work, I'm guessing that may be the case.  And according to the previous owner, there's at least one CD stuck in the CD player that will need to be finagled out (which he blames on his wife....mmm hmm).  Besides that, we're good to go!

We don't actually need the van quite yet, but this one was a good deal so we went ahead and jumped on it.  Once this second baby gets here (and we'll have TWO rear-facing car seats to accommodate), the van will be much appreciated.  Not as much fun as piling the Simington family (me, Lucas, Delano, Grammy and Gramps) into the Rav4, but definitely more comfortable!  And when it's just me and Lucas and the two kiddos, the back seat folded into the floor of the van will give us a TON of space.

Here's how much space is in the back of a Rav4.  P.S. - A stroller takes up most of that space.

Here's how much space is in a Quest with the back row laid down.

Even still a lot of space with the back seat up.

Now I just need to learn to drive it, but more importantly, learn to park it.  It's a LOT closer to the ground than my Rav4, and a lot bigger.

Hopefully not like that.

Or like that.

Ok so maybe you might see a little of that.....

I used to drive a van around for work when I lived down in Orlando (one of those work vans with no windows in the back) and then a Ford F250 after a coworker rolled the van.  So I've driven larger vehicles before - it's just been a while.  And I only remember parallel parking the van ONCE while in Tampa.  I'm not sure I ever had to parallel park the F250.  If I did, I don't remember.  Or maybe it was just terrible and I blocked it out.

So we have a minivan.  Fist-pound to you, fellow minivanners.