The way I roll

Ronnie and I have always been very lucky with our cars.  Aside from a very few incidences, they've been reliable and great to have.  We've been happily driving sedans for our entire driving lives and they've served us wonderfully.

Enter two kids.

And those kids' gear.

And the crazy Wyoming weather.

We were ready for a change, so we did it.

Say hello to our new car:

We love it.  It's a 2006 GMC Yukon and fits our family with plenty of room to grow. 

[Those of you that don't care to know every little reason that we purchased this car can stop reading now.  For the rest of you, if anyone is still with me, I apologize if you get bored quickly, but in all fairness I totally warned you.]

Once we knew we were staying in Wyoming for a while, we knew that we wanted a 4-wheel drive vehicle.  That Wyoming weather is a little crazy. We really went back and forth on what other features/size we wanted our new wheels to have/be.

We love Hondas and would love to own one of the brand new Pilots, but let's be honest, they are a little pricey.  So, then we started looking at other mid-size SUVs.  Initially, I knew I didn't need a 3rd seat now, but wanted the option of having more seating for toting around my kids friends, the occasional guest, etc.  A 3rd seat that folded flat seemed like the perfect option, so we decided to test drive several different brands and see how we felt.

We were pleased with pretty much every car we drove in that category and started to think about actively searching for a mid-size for a great price.  Then, it was time for me to travel to scope out a meeting site for one of my tri-annual work meetings.  I rented a GMC Envoy for the trip and the whole fam took off on a long weekend.

It wasn't long into the trip that we realized that with children the age of our kids, there was some of the time that I needed to be in the back with them....if we wanted to avoid stopping ALL. OF. THE. TIME.  While I did fit between the car seats in the Envoy.  I barely fit, and I mean barely.  It wasn't comfortable at all and as the trip went on, I realized that wasn't what I was looking for.  We did more research, realizing that all mid-sized SUV were within and inch or two of that and decided to widen (no pun intended) our search once again.

Enter the full-sized SUV.  Yes, the gas economy is not our favorite, and the 3rd seat doesn't fold flat, but with two kids in car seats, I can sit in between them comfortably. The cargo area is the same size as the mid-sized SUVs, even with the 3rd seat still in (and folded up) and with the 3rd seat removed, it is massive.

I've driven to Cody in it with one kid and it was marvelous to sit up higher on the road.  We're taking on its maiden-full-family-voyage all the way down to California and I'm confident it will be fantastic.