New Mom-mobile

I keep forgetting to include a major update in our lives...we got a new vehicle!  Specifically, it is my new vehicle/mom-mobile.  My former Ford Explorer did not fit three car seats across the back seat and, although it did have a third row, it was very challenging to get a kid strapped in back there.  I had been driving Justin's pickup since Milo came along and we decided the time had come.  I am now the driver of a Ford Expedition EL (for extra long). 

 

This one is not ours.  It is clearly a stock photo.  However, ours looks like this, including the beige trim.  It is a 2014 and was a rental in California in it's former life. 

 

I grew up riding around in Expeditions.  My mom drove one of the first ones in our area back in 1997 and it seemed like people were in love with that thing everywhere we went. Now monster SUVs are everywhere I look but at the time they really weren't.  You saw the occasional Suburban but that's all I really remember.  Expeditions and their relatives were criticized as unnecessary gas guzzlers only owned by suburban sprawl soccer moms who had to have everything huge to keep up with the Joneses and but, in the words of my dad, "those people don't live here".  By "here", he meant a farm in North Dakota where it would take days for a snowplow to clear the gravel road to our house and where the same road would turn into an absolute river of rutted mud for weeks every spring.  And I can confirm that these beasts can plow through almost anything.  My new one climbs the icy hill leading to our cul de sac without a problem.  You wouldn't even know there was ice.  Last week there was about two feet of snow piled in front of the driveway from the snowplow and I drove right through it and didn't even feel a bump.   Back in the 90's it was definitely an improvement on the vans we had owned previously and their narrow little tires.  Now that I think about it, I drove our Expedition the day I took (and passed on the first try at the age of 14!) my driver's test. 

 

I can't believe I haven't even photographed my new vehicle yet!  I just don't have time for that nonsense!  That wasn't always the case, as you can see from this photo of me from 2004 when I got a new Ranger to replace my old Ranger.  I leased so I had a new one every two years. This was taken after my Grandparents' 50th Anniversary party and my parents drove the new one to me and took the old one home.

 

The general consensus would probably be that the young woman in this picture is cute enough and probably a silly and fun person but if I tried to pose with my vehicle now as a 32 year old mom of three it would look downright stupid so I will spare you.  If I was being authentic I would have to be manhandling my 40 lb. double stroller into the back or something.  By the way, that dress is still in my closet.  If I remember correctly it is bias cut which means there is a 100% chance that I would look like lumpy sausage if I tried to put it on now.  Maybe I will keep it around so Tessa can wear it as a Halloween costume some day.