Out with the old

Our lease was up in March for the Nitro and we had to make a decision on more long term family transportation. We decided that we were done with the Nitro and found out that we could trade it in before the lease was out. This was very good news since we went over our mileage 20 thousand miles and we were going to owe quite a bit with just that. So thanks to Grandma and Grandpa, we were able to spend a whole day and part of the evening test driving and negotiating prices. We played hard to get and continued the process of negotiations through the next couple of days. Ultimately, we got a steel on the new member to the family. Welcome Town and Country!
The positives:
EVERYTHING opens at the touch of a button!
It has 2 DVD players and some satellite TV stations that we haven't figured out how to find yet
I am STILL finding buttons and fun gadgets
G LOVES looking out of the sunroof
It is so much easier to transfer G into and out of
It has the really cool rear view backup camera (that I am still trying to get used to, yet making a conscious effort not to become dependent on it)
It has LOTS of room
It gets decent gas mileage
By purchasing it, we still managed to continue our support for American made vehicles (although we almost purchased the Honda and I justified the possibility by knowing that Honda does make cars in the US. So we would still have supported the American jobs either way) :-)

The negatives:
It's a boat to drive and park
It's a mini van and feel like I have lost many cool points by driving it
It only gets decent gas mileage
It doesn't exactly fit into the garage quite yet. We have to do some moving around of cabinets before it will find shelter

Neither of us were all that crazy about going to the minivan, but the wagons and crossovers simply couldn't beat the space, comfort and convenience.

This is Gabriel helping us shop for vans. This is the Odyssey and not the one we went with.

Daddy S makes fun of me because I always seem to get somewhat attached to our vehicles. I was sad to see it go, and realized that we didn't have a picture of the Nitro. So this is it, waiting to be taken by the Chrysler guys. Good by Nitro, you have been very good to us for the past 3 years. You will always be the vehicle we brought Gabriel home from the hospital in. You have gotten us to many important destinations and I hope that you find yourself a nice warm garage and another appreciative family.

So I am sure that our family will grow very comfortably in this van. We plan to put many fun miles onto it by exploring the US as a family. Now we just need our camper.....maybe in a couple of years. :-)