Adding some color

Friday, August 15, 2014

Our van was having some problems shifting gears so I finally took it in to the dealership to have it looked at and they decided that the transmission needed to be replaced.  Thankfully it was still under warranty from when we bought it back in 2011 and we were even given a loaner car for free - a 2014 Toyota Tacoma - which was a lot of fun to drive around!  I decided to take the truck to the nursery to buy some flowers and things to plant in the yard to add a little color to it.  I bought a few mums for some fall color and also a hibiscus plant which has enormous pink flowers on it!  Since Luke wasn't in school yet, he helped me with a lot of the planting.  (M&M was at marching band camp.)

Planting some mums in front of the front porch - there is a nice little Japanese Maple tree that was already there.

Adding some color to our little garden island in the front corner of the yard.

Awesome hibiscus bush - hopefully it will look this nice next year!

The flowers are HUGE - that one is probably almost as big as my hand.

Picture of the front of the house.

Car wash

Tuesday, June 18

We washed both of the cars today - and waxed DH's car.  We had lots of helpers!

Toyota Family

We are now officially a Toyota family! (both of our cars are Toyotas now)
We have been looking for a new minivan for our family for about the past year. Up to this point we have been driving a 2002 Dodge Grand Caravan and it has been a great car for us, but our family has outgrown it. It only seats 7 and our family currently has 8 people in it. We have been able to make do with it up until now but I really felt strongly that we needed to upgrade to one that fits our family before our scheduled family trip to Washington.

So one reason I was a little more scatterbrained then usual during the kids' last week of school is because I was busy car shopping. I drove to several car dealers with MJ and decided that the 8-passenger Toyota Sienna (a.k.a. the Swagger Wagon) was probably the best fit for our family. On Monday, June 6th I test drove a couple of them and found a 2008 model that I really liked. (Apparently the 8-passenger Siennas are a pretty hot item in Utah because one dealer I went to that day had sold two of them that morning.) DH agreed to accompany me to the dealer that evening and in the end we spent way too much time there because we decided to buy it! There were a few things that they needed to fix on it (such as replace the front windshield) so we decided to leave it there until everything was finished and ready for us to take home.

My dad gave me a ride to pick up the new minivan on Thursday. Unfortunately there were a few things that I noticed before I left the dealer that weren't taken care of - like they couldn't find the mats for the car anywhere so they had to order a new set for us. We were also only given one key so I went over to the service department and had a second key made - it's definitely better to have an extra one and not need it than to need one and not have it!

I think it's a very pretty car. They called the color "sand" - it's kind of a very light gold color. Thankfully it came with an overhead DVD player and crossbars for the roof rack so it pretty much came trip ready for our upcoming trip. DH asked me when we were looking at it if our old van has any features that the new van doesn't have. I told him that no I didn't think so, but after driving it around for a while here are some things that I have found: no separate climate control for the passenger, no remote for the DVD player, the rear climate controls are located on one side of the van so you need to have a passenger sit there who is tall enough to reach the controls, no lockable storage drawer under the passenger seat. Here are some features that I love: stow-and-go back row of seats, super deep trunk, not as big of a step-up to get into the van, power sliding door is much quieter and smoother than our Dodge, seats 8 and is fairly comfortable in the back seats - even with car seats (I rode in the back for a good chunk of our trip to & from Washington and there was plenty of room for me), we can fit a car seat and two booster seats all on one row, the front row seats can all slide forward and backward individually. We are still trying to figure out how everything works and where to best sit everyone - especially the car seats - and still allow the side seats to fold down so the kids can climb into the back row. It's also kind of difficult to buckle the seat belts for the booster seats when they are next to a car seat. (One of these days I won't have to worry about these things anymore...)

DH's Christmas break

Monday, January 3, 2011
Between Christmas and New Year's DH took some time off work and worked from home a few days. We were also able to get the van into the shop for some repairs. Since DH wasn't at the office he was able to grow out his annual facial hair. One day it will be nice to not have him working for the church...

More car fun!

The Tuesday before the mouse sighting, I was driving around town running some errands in the morning when all of a sudden the van started making horrible grinding noises whenever I would step on the brakes. So much so that I ended up calling and canceling M&M's piano lesson and Luke and I walked to my den leader partner's house for cub scouts that afternoon. I called DH at work when I first heard the noise and he was able to arrange things at work so he could stay home the next day to work on the car. Apparently the brake pads were wearing very unevenly and the side that had the piece that makes the brakes squeal when they are getting worn was hardly worn at all. DH ended up having to get the rotors resurfaced again (this happened to us the last time as well) and then he was able to change the brake pads too. It's nice having a husband who can do work like this on the cars to help save us some money!

Ruth Lake

DH's parents came in town for a few days to attend and participate in MJ's baby blessing. On Saturday we decided to try out a hike in the Uintas to a lake that we haven't been to before - Ruth Lake. It took quite a while to get everyone ready to go and lunches made and packed for a picnic once we got to the location. Once everyone was loaded into the cars DH noticed that one of the tires on the minivan was low. When he went to fill it up he noticed that we had a nail in the tire. DH and his dad were able to fill it up enough for me to get it to the tire store to see if we could get it repaired. So I took the van, Mom N, and 4 of our kids (including the two youngest) to the tire store. Once we got there they said it would be about a 45 minute wait. So we sat down, fed MJ a bottle and Mom N got some bags of popcorn and water for the kids (offered for free in the waiting room). In the meantime DH and his dad and the other two kids went to the grocery store to buy some grapes for our lunch.

We actually only ended up waiting about 30 minutes and they were able to fix the tire and we were on our way again. We had DH's mom drive the van so that I could take care of MJ in case she needed something on the drive and then DH drove his car with his dad and Luke and Kitty. Apparently Kitty was complaining about being hungry and/or bored most of the drive so DH stopped at Mirror Lake first to see if we wanted to eat there. We decided not to - it was pretty chilly there and it is quite a bit of work getting everyone in and out of the cars so I didn't want to make an extra stop.

So we got back on the road to find the Ruth Lake trail again and finally got there. Once we were there we opened up the back of the van only to find out that not one of us had bothered to load the cooler into either of the cars. Here we were at the start of the trail - it was past lunchtime - we were all starving and the only thing we had in the cars to eat was a full bag of Doritos, a half-full bag of sour cream chips, a couple of packages of fruit snacks, and the bag of grapes that DH had just picked up at the store. We also had a couple of boxes of Capri-Suns and some water bottles and sports drinks.

We filled ourselves up as much as we were able and then started on the hike. The newspaper said that the hike was about .75 miles each way. I carried MJ in my sling and DH held Kay's hand and helped her. The kids did great on the trail with really no complaining from them. There were a couple of smaller lakes that we passed before we made it to Ruth Lake. Luckily we were sheltered from the wind for the majority of the hike and it wasn't nearly as cold there as it was when we stopped at Mirror Lake. Once we made it to Ruth Lake, Kitty had to use the bathroom (of course) so Grandma helped her out behind some bushes since I already had my hands full with MJ - thanks Grandma.

A small lake on the way to Ruth Lake
The trail at this point continues on to another lake called Lofty Lake which DH really wanted to hike to. So we ended up sending him along with his dad and M&M and Luke. I found a spot next to the lake to feed MJ. I also scrounged around in my backpack and managed to find a few lollipops and mints for the kids to suck on. Once MJ was ready to go Mom N and I headed back to the car with the little kids. We hiked very slowly with me carrying MJ in the sling and holding Kay's hand as well. Kay was exhausted by the time we made it back to the car and she fell asleep almost instantly once we started back home. Not more than 5 minutes of our arrival back to the cars, DH's group made it back as well. They ended up not making it all the way to Lofty Lake because they didn't feel that everyone in the group was quite up to it. On the way back home DH's car stopped to pick up some KFC for dinner and some of the kids in my car ate their sandwiches as soon as we got home.
Looking for rocks to throw into Ruth Lake
Blondie was not feeling very well this day. She had a little bit of a sore throat the day before and then was cold all day on the day of the hike. She ended up hiking back to the car with MJ's blanket wrapped around herself. Once we got home from the hike she crashed on the couch and didn't feel like eating anything for dinner. She went to bed early and then woke up not long after that just screaming and crying about something - she never did tell us what was wrong. Then she went to bed again and woke up feeling and acting just fine on Sunday...

Menlove Toyota

If anyone is looking for a car in the Northern Utah area, I would recommend Menlove Toyota in Bountiful, and do your research beforehand on the internet. Our fear with going to a dealer was having to deal with a salesman that would try and get the most money that he could out of us. Most dealers now have internet salesmen that make their money off of selling high volumes of cars, whereas the regular salesmen make their money off of the individual sales. Both the internet salesmen that we dealt with gave us upfront out-the-door pricing for the cars we were looking at and they both told us that they assume that internet shoppers have already done their research on the cars so they usually start well below the MSRP for internet shoppers. The reason we chose Menlove Toyota over Mark Miller was because their final price was over $1000 less for essentially the same car - and there were no last minute changes or surprises in which they tried to bleed us for more money.
Our overall experience with this car purchase was a very positive one and we still can't believe that we got the deal that we did.

Whirlwind of a week!!

This week has definitely been packed with activity! It started out innocently enough with DH's parents leaving Monday morning. Shortly after they left DH took off for work. Not too long after he left for work I heard the garage door open again and he came walking in the door. My husband's car has been nearing the end of its life for some time and during the last week or two the gears have been getting harder and harder to shift. On Monday my husband got as far as the freeway on his way to work and didn't feel comfortable driving any farther in his car. So we decided to spend the day researching how to go about shopping for a new car. My husband found a great website, carbuyingtips.com, packed with lots of great info on how and where to shop for a car.

The first thing we wanted to do was to go to a car dealer and just test drive a couple of cars to see what was out there. We have talked about buying a car for some time now and had been toying with the idea of buying a brand new car off of the lot. Luckily my parents were available and willing to work with us throughout the week so that we didn't have to lug the kids with us to the car lots. So we called up my parents and they were willing to come and watch the kids while we drove to the lot.

We looked at some cars and test drove a Honda Civic and a Toyota Corolla. My husband has been really wanting to get a car that was going to be dependable and last us for many years to come. After test driving these cars and looking at some of the sticker prices on them we headed for home.

That night and the next day we looked around some at our options and on Tuesday we decided to try out one of the online sites listed at carbuyingtips.com, invoicedealers.com. What you do is select what type of car you want and then the website sends your info to local dealers in the area and then they contact you - so we tried it for the Toyota Corolla. Within just a few minutes we had a Salt Lake Toyota dealer, Mark Miller Toyota, calling us for some info and to give us a price on a car - significantly lower than what we had looked at the day before. Not too long after that we had another dealer in Bountiful, Menlove Toyota, call us with a car and a similar offer. So we called up my parents again and they graciously came and watched the kids while we drove up to Salt Lake to take a look at the first car. We drove the car and had a good experience with the salesman there. He was totally different from what you expect from a car salesman and told us straight up what the take home price would be for that car. We decided to skip the second dealer because the car was almost the exact same model and we didn't feel a need to test drive another one. We told the salesman that we would keep in touch and that we wanted to think about it some more.

Later that afternoon we started the process of applying for a loan through my credit union back in Virginia in case we decided to finance some of our car purchase. We also decided to try the online process with the Honda Civic and see what kind of offers we received. Well, we only heard from one Honda dealer and they sounded like they wouldn't be willing to negotiate from their offer so we decided to go the Toyota route since we were offered cheaper prices by more than $1000.

On Wednesday my husband went to work and I ended up having to drive down to his office to sign some papers for our loan. After that my husband was contacted by the Menlove salesman and asked how he could get us up there. We were kind of leaning towards just going with the Mark Miller dealer because it seemed like a good deal and the two dealers had pretty similar prices but the Mark Miller car had a few extra features. The Menlove salesman said that he would then add on these features at no cost to us and offer a lower price. Then my husband called the Mark Miller salesman and asked if he could match the price. We basically had the 2 dealers going back and forth until the Bountiful salesman said that he had gone as low as he could go without manager approval but he would talk to the manager and then call my husband back in 5 minutes. In the meantime I had called my parents to see if they could watch the kids in case we needed to drive up to the Bountiful dealer. The offer that we got was almost too good to believe. My husband called back the Salt Lake salesman and he couldn't believe the offer either - he told us to be careful that they didn't give us a lesser car and that they didn't add on any hidden fees. So we dropped the kids off at my parents, drove up to Bountiful, test drove the car and got the walk out the door price from them. There were 2 features that the car didn't have but they weren't willing to budge on adding them at no cost because the price was so low - we would have to add them at our cost if we wanted them. We decided to go home and think about it that night and elected to not put down a $500 down payment because it was non-refundable. We were afraid at the price quoted that we would end up signing for something that wasn't what we thought it would be and then be out $500 if we backed out.

On Thursday my husband went in to work and called the Salt Lake salesman to see if he could match the price - my husband liked the color on the car at the Salt Lake dealer better than the Bountiful location. He was told that that was as low as he could go so we called the Bountiful dealer to tell them we would be in in the afternoon to pick up the car! In the meantime we got the pre-approval on our car loan and all of the salesmen were quite shocked by the low interest rate we were getting for our loan - 3.75%.

So Thursday afternoon I drove down to pick my husband up from work early, picked the kids up from school and then we all drove up to sign the papers and drive home with the car! The salesmen at Menlove Toyota were true to their word and didn't try any last minute tricks or switches on us. The price was exactly as we expected and they didn't try getting us to add on anything extra - except for an extra 3 year warranty that we are still considering - it's refundable if we end up not needing it during the length of the warranty. I must say that it still doesn't seem real! We started looking for a car on Monday and drove home with a brand new 2009 Toyota Corolla on Thursday. The car is awesome and we got it for a great price as well - several thousand dollars below the listed MSRP!Now we just need to get rid of our old car somehow - any takers???

Unexpected repairs

On Friday we all piled into the van to go to the White Family Christmas Party. DH was driving and on the way there, the car was making a horrible grinding noise every time he hit the brakes. It was a painful drive there and back home again, the whole time wondering what was causing the noise and why we have never heard it before. I drive the van almost everyday and I'm sure I would have noticed that noise before (especially since it seemed to be coming more from the driver's side). We were pretty sure it had something to do with the brakes, but we were hoping that maybe there was something frozen in place since our high temperatures for the past week have been below freezing. After we got home, DH took off the front driver's side tire and sure enough, the brakes pads were completely gone and were grinding into the rotor - not a good thing. DH did some looking online and our hope was that he could figure out how to take the rotor off and find a place that could resurface it for us.

Unfortunately, this was horrible timing because we had a full day of activities planned for Saturday. M&M had her tumbling performance across the valley at 8:30 in the morning and then we were going to spend the day at my parents house decorating cookies and helping them put up their Christmas tree and then we were all going to attend Blondie's ballet performance in the evening.

So we decided to just pile everyone in our other car to make it to M&M's performance and then we drove to my parents afterwards and left the kids there while DH & I went back home to look into repairs for the van. Luckily we ran into someone at the tumbling performance from our ward that DH thought might know something about cars and so he asked him where we could go to get a rotor resurfaced. He said that Checkers does it at their store and it only costs about $10 dollars! So on our way home we stopped at Checkers, bought a repair manual for our van, bought some new brake pads and asked about getting a rotor resurfaced. They said it takes about an hour to do and said it would be about $11.

So DH & I went home and figured out how to take the brakes & rotor off and then took it to Checkers. They said it would take about 45 minutes to an hour and would be $9. So we left it with them and then went out to lunch (I must say it was nice not having the kids with us). Then we stopped at Sears and bought some halogen work lamps to give some more light in the garage and then went home to see if the store had called yet. Well, they had but unfortunately it wasn't good news. Apparently after we left the store the guy went back to start the resurfacing and realized that they were missing some of the pieces to their machine and so they couldn't do it for us. So we went back to the store, picked up the rotor and took it to another Checkers store that they had called to make sure they could do it (unfortunately we lost about an hour and a half of work time because of this delay).

After we finally got the rotor back it was pretty straight forward putting everything back together and then changing the brake pads on the other side (fortunately the rotor looked alright on the other side). Then we quickly cleaned up and drove to my parents house so I could pick up Blondie and take her to her ballet recital. Unfortunately we were late getting her there and the room was already packed so I wasn't able to get very good seats.

DH came with the rest of the family, my parents, sister M, brother D & his wife K after eating some dinner and were lucky that they made it there in time to see Blondie perform. Overall the repair on the van went pretty smoothly and it was nice not having the kids around so that I was able to be out there helping DH. It was a bitter cold day and it was nice having a garage to keep us out of the wind. I borrowed an electric heater from my parents that helped take some of the bitterness out of the air, but my hands are still suffering from the cold and dry temps. They were very red and raw on Saturday evening. Today they are finally looking a little better...

Thanks Mom & Dad and M for looking after the kids for us (& helping them decorate cookies)!