Before Danica was born we had to replace my Pontiac Vibe with a bigger vehicle. If you've ever seen the backseat a Vibe you know there is absolutely no way 3 people can sit comfortably in it...let alone 3 child safety seats. We decided to trade my dad the meat we raised for him for a mini van he had. We were planning to pay off some bills and save up a large down payment to combine with our tax return this year so we could buy a new vehicle this spring. After a year of not having a car payment we didn't really want to go back to having a car payment. We agreed if we could find a big enough vehicle with low miles we would buy that with our tax return instead.
Gas prices, as you know, are ridiculously high. $3.19 a gallon yesterday when I went to visit Amber and Anabel. The prices are expected to keep climbing. The van was getting about 18 mpg. We live about 25 minutes from town and with Landon's visitation schedule to his dad's I'm running him about 90 miles round trip twice a week as well. That really gets expensive. We decided we needed to go back to a car so we could hopefully get better gas mileage.
After talking to my sister about her Buick Park Avenue we decided that we would look for one for ourselves. She said her car was getting at least 30 mpg. After browsing different auto sale websites and magazines we found one at a great price during end of year sales the Wednesday before New Years. It was at a dealership in Waukesha. Lucky for us my sister lives less than 30 minutes from there. I packed up the kids and myself and headed down. When traveling with a baby and a 3 year old the trip often will take longer than it should. Our 3 1/2 hour trip took about 5 hours after breaks for nursing, potty, and supper.
Heather watched Dancia and Sawyer for me while my brother-in-law, Nick, and I went to the dealership. I traded in our van and got an excellent deal on our new (to us) 2002 Buick Park Avenue. It has 68,000 miles, leather and power seats, an upgraded sound system, and brand new Goodyear Tires. After tax, title, and license we paid $6,000. Not a bad deal and, even better, no car payments after we get our tax return.
By coincidence my brother and his girlfriend, Becky, were also staying with my sister on their way to Florida for vacation. It was nice to spend some time together. After the kids went to bed we had fun playing some old school Mario Brothers.
On Thursday, before heading home, I went to visit Ryan's great aunt, Sister Ann, who is living at the Clare Hall retirement convent in Milwaukee. She was very excited to see me and the kids and we all really enjoyed the visit.
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