End of an era

We sold the minivan.

The one that I said "never" to (and by the way, never say never...).  The one that carted around high chairs, strollers, playpens, soccer gear, bikes, skiis, lawnchairs, luggage, shoes, groceries, IKEA furniture, coolers, an entertainment unit, tiles, kitchen sink (not kidding) ... and more than a few kids at a time.

I complained about it not exactly being "sexy", my big, beige, boring box that seemed ubiquitous in our suburban neighbourhood  ("hey Mom, there's your car, again!").  Sure, I had yearned for a yummy mummy car, or at least one in which  I could crack open the sunroof and blare my oh-so-cool satellite tunes from;  a vehicle that I could sit in and have someone look over at me from the same vantage point of coolness as opposed to cranking back their heads ...even fantasize back to the day when I was with a gaggle of girlfriends and the cute cop next to us at the lights gave me a wink after lowering his shades ... sigh...

But now that the van is really gone, I'm a little sad.

For within those 4600 pounds of road beast, some of the best family memories were being created.  My kids grew up in that van.  I know that "grew up" is relative.   They're still only 8 and 13.  G was only 1 when we got the van; the Boy almost 6.  And for a big chunk of that time I was a stay at home Mom.  Hard to believe that this time 4 years ago I was going through the big interviews that would launch me to where we are today.

Van-less.

Oh the new SUV is quite the epitome of awesomeness.  It can even (almost) hold 7 people - if you ask your 13 year old son's almost 6 foot tall friend to sit in fetal position. And I'm sure that new memories  await us in the road trips ahead.  My new set of wheels even looks scary to a degree - from a certain angle it looks shark-like -maybe I could even christen it "Sharknado" - can't get cooler than that.

Now if I could only get past the lack of those sliding doors...