A new minivan....finally!

 Alice had some St. Patrick's Day fun in her preschool class on Wednesday. They had some treats and built Leprechaun traps out of shoe boxes. Her box happened to be green already so it helped in her decorating. She and Charlotte were so excited to try and catch a Leprechaun. I asked Nikki to help them set up the trap. Alice's teacher had given a baggie of Lucky Charms as the bait. They didn't catch one but the little guy took the baggie and tripped the trap anyway.

Charlotte joined Alice in her bed that night. You can't really see her but she's back there. Alice was holding the string to the trap, ready to pull when the time was right.

There's the bait taped to the top.

On Thursday, the actual St. Patrick's Day, I took Alice and the twins I babysit to Lions Park. They played for a good hour. I thought it was fitting that we were at the playground that was mostly green colored. Later that evening Alice was putting together some puzzles and fell asleep in the process. She must have played hard!

Friday evening Curtis and I took off to go car shopping right after we ate dinner, this time without the girls. We found a couple of minivans that we were interested in but held off until we could do some more looking. Saturday morning Curtis dropped me off at the church so I could help the Relief Society clean it and he went to the store to get some new work clothes for a meeting he has in Washington this week. After we got home and I was able to shower and get dressed we left to do more car shopping. We test drove several vehicles (Curtis did the driving). We ended up in Boise and were seriously thinking about getting a minivan we saw that is hybrid. It's a Chrysler Pacifica but on the car fax it showed a recent recall having to do with the charging system. A hybrid is electric and gas powered. So they were telling people to not charge the vans until they could resolve this issue since there were 12 fires reported. Not only did they say don't charge it but also don't park it near buildings or other vehicles just to be safe. Uh, yeah I'm not comfortable buying this anymore. 

Well, the guy that was helping us did some checking for other minivans and found one at one of their other locations that was not far away (this was through Larry Miller). It happened to also be a Chrysler Pacifica but not a hybrid. It was also a year older (2017) but actually had less miles on it. He drove us over to test drive it and this van actually had a lot more extras on it than the hybrid van did, plus it was less expensive and had fewer miles, just under 40,000. This van even has a built in vacuum in the back and I've never seen that before on a car! Another feature I really like is that it has two sun roofs, a bigger one that can open toward the front of the van and then a smaller one in the rear that just has the option to open and close the shade cover on it. There are two built in TV's that can play dvd's, has game apps (even math flash cards), and HDMI and USB hook ups to plug other things into it. And each screen has a remote control as well. It seems like everything is electric. I just push buttons to open the sliding doors. The buttons on the driver doors control the locks. I don't even have to put a key in the ignition because it has a push start button. The key fob just has to be near it. Crazy! And the front 4 seats have an option to heat up or cool down the seat. Anyway, it has lots of fun things and I love the color and shape of it as well.

There were some people scheduled to come test drive this van at 5:00 and we were there a little after 4pm when we test drove it. We said we wanted it but the salesman didn't want to be rude since there were people scheduled to come see it. Well, we also had a temple appointment at 7:30 and still had to go home and change and come back to Boise to be there by 7:00. We decided that I would drive home in our old van to get changed and bring back our temple bags and clothes for Curtis while Curtis and the salesman stayed and drove around in the Pacifica while waiting for 5:00. For whatever reason the appointment fell through and they said we could have it. Yay! So they drove back to the other dealership to start the paperwork. I got there just in time for me to sign things. Curtis decided he wanted to keep our red van for him to drive to work to save money on gas and just park his truck at home until needed. We ended up putting $5000 down, most of which came from our tax return, and finance the rest. We got finished with everything and were able to drive away at about 6:50 down the road to the temple so it was perfect timing! And here's our new van parked at the temple.

My first time driving it wasn't until after we got it home and took the kids for a quick little ride. This car feels so futuristic with pushing buttons for so many things, plus the cameras that shows us things behind us and somehow can give us a top view as well. Not sure how they do that! Anyway, so far we are loving it. So many cool things! I've been driving that red van for over 15 years so it was about time for an upgrade. We're so glad to have something new to drive before we take a quick trip to Washington this weekend.  Curtis has been to Tri Cities twice now but the rest of us haven't and since it's spring break this week we thought it would be a good time to go check out the area. We're leaving tomorrow and coming back Sunday. It sounds like it's going to be a pretty for sure thing that we'll be moving to Washington but we just don't know exactly when yet. They still need to find more work in that area. Curtis wants to sell the house right now though so we can get the best price possible since the market will likely start dropping. He just wants to rent until they're ready for us to move over there. I think he's also anxious to get away from our next door neighbors 😆 So, as of right now that's the plan. Personally, I would rather just stay put until they're ready to send us so we don't have to pay rent.