New Addition to the Family

Well, now that my parents are here for a visit, I can let this out w/o spoiling the surprise anymore. Up to now, the new vehicle in our household was a nine year old Chevy pickup that I drive. The family car had been a Honda Accord that is now ten years old itself. Both have served well and I expect several more years out of each of them. However, getting around with two kids, especially if we want to take any kind of trip, was getting pretty cramped in the car. Our vacation a few weeks ago with the rental van clinched it for the wife. We had been talking about holding off for another year, but having the van for a week lead to the wife to push me to start shopping.
We considered most of the options, but it very quickly came down to the Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna. Finally, a day of test driving both of them back to back made it clear that the Ody was the better fit for us.
So, last Saturday, we went down to Clear Lake Honda, did some quick negotiating and got our minivan. It's a slate green metallic EX with leather and we when ahead and got the DVD. The kids have already taken to the new ride and my daughter in particular is in to the DVD system. The first thing she does is pop on the head phones. I'm sure we're going to have to work on that, especially for short trips. But, for now, we're still figuring out how things are going to work.
One adjust is parking. While the new van will fit in the garage, it is a good bit longer and wider than the car. I had to rearrange the garage a bit, and I've gotten the wife into the habit of folding the driver side mirror before she pulls in. I imagine it will get easier as we drive it more. Although, driving it is proving very easy. The van takes everything we've liked about the Accord and added ten years of refinements and improvements. I expect that this will serve well as the family hauler for the next ten years at least as well. I see many road trips in our future.