The Story

So my Audi A6 is getting old, has been for a while now.  She is a teenager, 15 yrs old.  And in car years, that is pretty ancient.  She has a bad oil leak that costs far more to fix than the car is worth, so sadly we have been dealing with puddles of oil in the garage.  Kinda sad to see large cut out cardboard boxes soaked with oil...Other flaws include no side air bags for the kids, no trips in the mountains because of said leak causing it to drip on engine and cause horrible smoking, no family trips...and the impending possibility of the engine or something else major crapping out any day,which is NOT a good thing with 2 young kids in car seats.


Anyway, the last week or so, there were some minor issues with the car, and so we decided it was definitely time to start getting more serious about finding what we wanted.  Our perfect car that we really wanted would be a newer version of our Audi.  Unfortunately, the used market for A6 Audi wagons is near impossible to find, and also much more expensive than 11 yrs. ago when we bought ours.  We considered an A6 Sedan too, and I even test drove one this last week, but really prefer a wagon for the space.  We spent a few days online looking at several different options.  Friday, my mom came over to babysit, and right before we left, Mike found a Silver 2009 A4 Audi wagon, the exact car we loved driving a couple of years ago.  The downside though, it was in Florida.  We were pretty tempted to buy it anyway since it had a great carfax report, and still had about 3 years left on it's warranty.  But, we decided to go out and look at some other vehicles, just to say we tried.  


We headed over to the Subaru dealer in American Fork, since they had a few different vehicles we wanted to look at.  We first looked at a used Toyota RAV, low miles, and descent price.  Our impression was, eh, it's OK.  Then we drove a couple of used Subaru Outbacks.  Then we looked at the brand new ones...which surprisingly where not much more than the used ones.  And since we were pretty used to the sticker price shock of the used Audi's, we were pretty surprised that we could get a brand new 2012 Subaru Outback for around the same price as a 4 year old Audi?!  We took the brand new one for a spin, and were pretty impressed...it's no Audi, but after driving an old car for so many years, it was a lot nicer than we had expected.


Anyway, we slept on it for a night, and decided to take the kids over to show them, and get some questions answered, and get a more solid estimate with the options we wanted.  We took the kids for a ride in one of them, to see how well they fit, and everything.  They really loved it!  We also took it home since it wasn't too far, to see how well it fit in the garage.  We went back and our sales guy, Chris Smith, (really great sales guy, no pressure, very patient, and went out of his way to help us)...we asked him to see what he had in the area that fit what we wanted.  There was one in SLC, but was sold today...then since we were also considering the Limited package, we asked to see if there were any in the area.  He tracked one down in Ogden.  After much thought, we decided it was the best decision for us right now, so we had him go ahead and get it.  We thought he would have one of the employees go get it, but he went himself!  Pretty impressive.


He said we could go over around 6:30 pm and it would be ready.  Liam and Rowan were being quite good considering the long crazy day.  Liam was running around like crazy by the end, but I kept an eye on him while Mike listened to all the instructions, and did most of the paperwork.  We got one quick picture, with horrible lighting, but I figure we will cherish it no matter what, it's not every day we get a BRAND NEW CAR!! Never in a million years thought we would ever buy a new car.  As kids we always heard you lose so much value driving it off the lot, but have to say the market is so much different today. Pretty crazy!!  So, the other great thing is they offered us an extended warranty for not much more.  And we know how horrible car repairs can be, so having 8 years of mostly maintenance free is definitely appealing.  So I know this is getting super long, so I will end with my most favorite feature it has...there is a camera in the back that shows the image in the rear view mirror!!  This feature is super great, and very useful in our neighborhood where little kids run around with no supervision.  Anyway, so far we are super happy, and I'm sure there will be a few things that disappoint, but overall we feel it was a solid decision.  Looking forward to taking the family on some drives.

And The Decision Was Made!!

More on this later...but here is our picture of us in front of our new car!!

Family Picture

Yay, we finally all were able to hold still for a few minutes and have a family picture : ) It's been a whole year...Thank you very much Erica!

Rowan and her Thumb

So on Sunday, Dad put a bandage on Rowan's thumb. She has been sucking it since birth. It was super cute as a newborn, and it worked really well to soothe her since she refused to take a binky. Anyway, the kids dentist told us to get her to stop ASAP. We asked our pediatrician, and he said that it was OK till she is older. All the devices that are supposed to help kids stop are for older kids, so we just let her continue. But, this last weekend, her thumb was looking really sore and swollen and we were concerned about infection, so Mike asked her if he could put a bandage on her boo boo. To our surprise, she was happy about it. She didn't try to take it off, and was a total trooper about the whole situation. It was a rough several nights, and nap times too. Mike took it off last night, and so far so good. We haven't seen her suck her thumb since...Hopefully, this did the trick!!

Big News!

I got the biggest surprise today...My brother texted me at work today telling me he had something serious to talk to me about. Said to call him when I got home after work...I was a little distracted getting the kids dinner, but I finally got a minute to call him. He told me to get on a computer. He sent me a link for a video on youtube. I started watching it, and it was a skype conversation between him and my parents...when he said he had a surprise to show them, I thought maybe he was going to show them an ultrasound, but NO it was a live BABY!!! I couldn't believe it!! They kept the secret from EVERYONE for 9 whole months. My parents were so surprised too. The video is priceless. Anyway, I am very excited for them....She is darling...and I'm so happy that our kids finally have a cousin from my side of the family too. Welcome to the world Ellie Jeanine : ) Congrats Eric and Karen!! (Wish we were closer though)