The new van

We purchased a new 2010 Honda Odyssey in the middle of March and it has already been properly ‘initiated’ into the family with a Johnson family road trip.  It passed all tests with flying colors.  We love it!  Our old van, a red Chevy Venture, was purchased when Emily was three days old.  Seven and a half years it served us well and traveled ALL OVER THE COUNTRY.  We’ve been everywhere in it and were sad to say goodbye.  But alas, it would not have met the strict German vehicle requirements and we were NOT going to put money into it to have it tuned up.    So instead we are putting buckets of money into our new van payment every month.  Ouch… especially since our other van had been paid off for two years.  But at least we won’t break down in the middle of Switzerland, right?  and at least WE LOVE IT!!  Get used to the miles, ‘ocean blue metallic’ van, it’s what we do. We managed to keep the inside relatively clean (due to the no food rule we recently adopted) but the outside was filthy with a film of grey mountain dirt and tons of yellow pollen.  When we drove home on Wednesday we immediately emptied everything into the garage and then from there but every stitch of clothing and supplies back where they live so that our house would again be spotless.  Then the kids got into their bathing suits to wash both vehicles.  They were so excited, had so much fun and were great little helpers… and then they played with the hose and went into the backyard for more sprinkler fun.