Did You Buy A New Van ?

When your family expands from 8 to 9 people it changes many things.  You might think that after about 3 kids everything is roughly the same ... and for the most part you would be correct.  You just make more dinner, re-use the same wardrobe for the next round of kids, spend longer saying prayers at night (and brushing teeth, etc.) and on and on.

But travelling around town and on road trips is a completely different ball game when you make that one person change.

Many vehicles nowadays are equipped to transport up to 8 passengers.  To be fair, most of those vans and mini-vans and suburban-type vehicles are not counting 8 full-sized adults but rather refer to a family with different ages and sizes of children.

There are not nearly as many options for 9 passengers.  In fact, you basically jump to 10-passenger, 12-passenger, or 15-passenger vans if an 8-seater isn't going to cut it for you.  It is as though the world is unprepared for a 9-person family or group.  Why not stop at 8?  Why not bring a friend along to make it an even 10?  Nobody does things with just 9 people!  Freaks!

Anyway, long story not so short ... some friends of ours from church had a 2006 Ford E-350 Econoline van (12-passenger) that they no longer needed, as most of their kids are out of the house now. The price was fair for both parties and the timing was just too optimal to pass up. So this evening we completed the transfer of the vehicle (they had literally just paid off the loan on the van so the title tranfer will have to come later). Now a whole new slew of questions begins, starting with ... where are we going to park this behemoth?! :)

What monstrous van would be complete
without some stick figure people ?!

Song Of The Day:
Inspired by my own comment in the first line of this post, "You Might Think" by The Cars is a great 80's song that relates to misconceptions people have about going from 8 to 9 people in a family.  In fact, I thought nothing at all about the impact of our history of road trip travel as a family when we knew Spencer was on the way.  Thankfully it has all worked out and we should be able to travel quite nicely for many years to come (and even bring a few friends along!)

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