“nobody’s going to top that.”

did anyone catch the arrested development reference. ten points.

Eek, the last birthday in my twenties!

We had a super good day. We ran some errands. We had my most favorite pizza. We had a glorious nap time (myself included) and then we bought a van.

Whaaaat!

I’m the first one to admit that I did not see this coming. I have been very adamant about 1) not ever buying a van and 2) if I have to have a van it won’t be until we are strapping our kids’ car seats to the roof because we are out of room. Just because I know you are wondering, no, I am not expecting. (Thanks for asking though– people at church. Can’t a girl just have a few extra seats in her car?)

Jazz has been trying to talk me into a van for a few years, probably since we had Isabelle and my answer has always been the same. A resounding helllll to the no.

Well, the idea of automatic doors persuaded me to accidentally start looking at them. Jazz started pointing out other features such as an automatic lift gate! Push start! Back up camera! Navigation and bluetooth! Built in sun shades for the kids! Crazy gas mileage! We test drove a Sienna and I hated it.

And that was the end of that.

But then later, we drove a different model of Sienna, and it was like a totally different car. We started talking numbers and Toyota said they would give us a CRAZY amount to trade in our Camry. We shopped around, and realized that we would never ever be able to get that amount out of the Camry at a later time so….

We bought a van. It had to be brought in from another dealer because I was very specific on the color (look if I’m going to drive a van for ten years it betta be the grey color I love.) I didn’t think it would arrive for a few days but lo and behold, at 5 pm on my birthday we signed a billion papers and got the fob (NO KEY BECAUSE ITS PUSH START!) and rolled out of the Toyota lot.

Hi this is our new van that mom won’t let us eat in.

Red velv!

Thanks Scott for the photo bomb. And Mo and Sabs for my cute necklace!

We ate a really nice home cooked meal and shared cake and the kids ran around all crazy. I talked to every one of my siblings on my birthday and everyone made me feel so special. My parents gave me this amazing post-war canvas map that I found in Maui in loved, but didn’t buy. They are trixy and bought it for me and now I get to pick out the framing and hang it in Lincoln’s room. I mean, are they the best or what.

Jazz jokes that he can’t get me out of the van. I’m like WHERE CAN WE GO. The best thing is the auto sliding doors. I press a button, both doors open. Bam. Isabelle can open the door, hop in, close the door, and buckle her carseat. She loves it! Also, I can unlock/lock from the outside it by holding my finger to the handle if the fob is in my bag close by. It’s like magic! It recognizes my pandora from my phone and plays it when I get in the car. And it has my entire phonebook from my iphone loaded so I can call anyone without even holding my phone. It has an adorable little 8th seat that stows all sneaky in the back side of the trunk. You can set an alert for your oil changes. Like every 5K miles it will say hey micci, change my oil.

I’m officially converted.

Jazz’s birthday is next week and I’m not sure how I can compete with a shiny new car?