Saying Goodbye to Old Faithful

This all happened so fast I still can't believe it happened. Baylen and I are usually the type who research things forever. For example, it took almost three years to find the perfect swing set and way longer than that to decide where to buy a house. Well, a few weeks ago, we were attempting to fix the AC in our Astro so that we could endure the long summer drive to the cabin. We couldn't figure out what was wrong. We called my dad to ask if he knew anything about the AC. He suggested that we might not want to put any more money into it since it has 175,000 miles on it now. One hour later we were in Bountiful test driving a van and 1/2 hour later we had basically decided that we had found the van for us. (Keep in mind that we were not even thinking about purchasing a vehicle for at least another year when we woke up that morning.) We decided we'd better sleep on it but man it was a good deal. The next day was Sunday so we didn't pursue it at all that day. On Monday, we spent a good portion of the day negotiating, applying for a loan, and figuring out insurance. On Tuesday morning, we called the guy back to tell him we wanted the van. He said he wasn't at the dealership yet but that he was pretty sure it had sold the night before. I won't lie that I was kind of devastated. We called him back a few hours later just to make sure and found out that the van was still there. I guess that the other people who were going to buy it decided to test drive it one more time. When they went to start it, the battery was dead (someone had left a light on). They decided there must be something wrong with it and decided against it. Yeahhhhh! We purchased it that day.

We are so excited to drive a new (to us) vehicle. It is really a blessing that we were able to find it for such an incredible deal. It's a 2005 Toyota Sienna. We bought it with only 15,000 miles on it. We cannot figure out why it has so few miles but we're not complaining! It was actually a lease return in Beverly Hills. We came up with the hypothesis that it probably belonged to a mom who only drove it when she absolutely had to. We're sure it's not exactly THE POPULAR THING to drive a minivan in Beverly Hills. So, she probably had a real nice car that she drove around most of the time and then just used that one to take the kids where they needed to go. Just a guess!

So we have to say goodbye to Old Faithful. As old as it is, and as silly as this sounds, I'm having a hard time letting it go. For one thing, it has been so good to me. It's windows don't work, the sliding door is stuck most of the time, the back hatch doesn't stay up, and the AC and heat don't work BUT IT HAS NEVER EVER BROKEN DOWN ON ME. For that, I feel so blessed. I also have soooo many good memories in this van. It's the van I drove around all through high school. I drove it on my first date and to many girls choice dances. I drove it up to Ricks College several times. I drove it up to visit Baylen at his house all the time when we were dating. He gave me fake parking tickets on it when I would drive it down to BYU. We brought Ashlyn home from the hospital in it and have been on so many fun vacations together as a family in it. I know it is just a car, but it is just so packed with memories. We also feel so blessed that because of the generosity of my parents in giving it to us, we were able to get through school without having to worry about a car payment. I can't even begin to explain what a blessing that has been.

Here's a picture of our purchase...


Any suggestions on a good name? Yes, we are part of that strange breed that names their cars. We just haven't found a name that fits it yet.