IKEA thoughts….

Hello, well today we decided that after we dropped off the boys at German School we would go to IKEA. I have been carrying around a diaper bag as a purse because of foster child A, but he/she (need to be unclear here) was on a visit this morning. So I was carrying around a diaper bag with no children around me. I am sure I was quite a sight!

A couple of months ago we went to an RV show that we have been to the prior 2 years. I guess it is a tradition now. Well since we have foster child A, I was telling a friend of mine how I would deal with both that child and Nathaniel taking a nap at the same time. My thought was to use a backpack carrier (which we have) and then the lighter one could sleep in that. My friend felt bad for me though and said I could borrow her double stroller for the trip. I was very thankful and it turned out that it was VERY much needed. So when we got back, I offered to pay her $20 in rent. It was THAT appreciated! Well her twins are a couple of months older then Nathaniel. She doesn’t really need the stroller anymore. So I offered to buy the stroller from her and said that the $20 could be a down payment. After a few minutes and to my utter shock she gave me the stroller! This is a very nice stroller that I know she paid a lot for. But she gave it to me anyway. Awww!!

Well we have this stroller in the back of the van now as it’s full time home. I find that even when I don’t need to put both children in the stroller, having the extra space is handy. And we are licensed for 2 children and they have to be under Nathaniel’s age (as that was what all of the advice was that we were given. You would shocked though on how much this limits our space in the back of the van. When we do the big “once every 2 months” cooking I do take it out, but even so I am starting to quickly realize we are outgrowing the minivan. There is a sentence I never thought I would say. At one point we were calling the minivan our “RV” because it had so much room. But something about the 3rd child (even though Max is now in a normal seat so we still only have 2 car seats right now – we don’t have a foster child B) it makes it so suddenly we have a lot less room then we once did.

Well in the spring, I saw that this might be the case. We have been going to the RV show for a couple years and our Odyssey is great, but with the exception of a VERY small trailer filled with pillows, it can’t tow anything. So I knew we would need something to tow. Looking around everything was WAY expensive. Seriously, why do cars have to cost half the value of my house? SUV’s well, only some of them would have a decent tow rating. Those that do are BIG but they lack one of the features I love most about my minivan. I love being able to throw the kids in the minivan, buckle them all in, and get to the front seat without having to get out in the cold, wet, snowy, icy or whatever other horrible weather condition that we get here in the Northeast. The minivan has been great for this. I can get everyone in, climb in myself, then close the door and get everyone in without going outside again. 😀 I am spoiled.

Trucks are nice but they only hold 5 people at most and hearing fights break out between children isn’t my idea of a vacation.

I knew there needed to be something out there for someone like me. I just needed to find it. And I did. I found a Nissan NV. They make a few of these but I am looking at the passenger van. Trust me walking up to one feels like you are going into an RV. It is 7 feet tall! However I have found in my searches, that this is actually not that bad. I can’t take it to my oncologist, but I can take it everywhere else. It is cheaper then most things out there and has the tow rating we need. All good things in my book. Best of all, it seats 12, has side airbags even in the back (most of these things don’t), the seat belts are attached to the seats so when you remove seats, there is no seat belts in your way for cargo. Even if we had 4 kids, everyone would fit. I think it is a perfect fit for us. The cons for it are it’s size (that I need to get used to), the inability to see out the rear window (back up camera is needed and available), it isn’t great to look at, and I worry that if I pull up to a hotel, people will think it is the courtesy shuttle! So for the last point I want it in red. That should help with that and I hate non colors anyway.

This brings me to today. I was loading the small items in our van and looking at the double stroller and even though we didn’t have any kids in the van, we barely had room for the few small items we had. Clearly the NV is in our future.

We have also decided (more or less) on a trailer that we would want when the time comes. We want an Airstream Flying Cloud 30 FB Bunk. That is a mouthful! When we were at the last RV show we started realizing that everything had faults. You have to realize, with getting licensed to foster, we have had to use EVERY inch of our house to the fullest. So going into an RV and seeing that most of them didn’t do that was very frustrating! Lack of light, wasted spaces, LOTS of slide outs and other things. All of this made them heavy and not really well used. And don’t even get me started on how all the bathrooms looked like they were for show. The RV show we go to lasts a week. It is used by trades people and the public. So these RV’s get a lot of use in a VERY short period of time. In and out, in and out, in and out. So they really start showing this at the end of the show. They are not designed for that sort of abuse. So on a lark, I mentioned to Tony that we should look at Airstream’s. So we did. It was amazing!

Airstream’s are very light (compared to other trailers). They use EVERY inch of space. They don’t have slide outs (in the trailers… there are some class B motorhomes that have a slide out). This sounds odd at first that I don’t want, but I am envisioning us taking cross country trips to see family and the country and as part of that, I see us stopping for the night at truck stops or other quick stop places. Having no slide out will make it easier to stop, sleep, then go. Slide outs can make it so you can’t get to things in the trailer and that would stink! Especially if one of those places was the bathroom! Speaking of the bathroom, Airstream’s showers are 2 pieces, floor and surround. So they are not just for show! Oh and they have windows in the bathroom for light!

If you would like to see what we would be able to fit into, here is a very long video talking all about it.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Please subscribe to the right and you will get emails when I post to the blog!