the Graham Cracker House

the newest member of our family.  Yes.  **Chloe is a car.  Not just any car- a  white Toyota Rav4 (2000) with gray trim.  Bjorn could tell you more about her specifics, but that is all I know and all I am interested in.  Besides the fact that she is cute and small and fun to drive but still feels like she has some power.   Mostly, she reminds me of the toyota truck I drove in high school and brings back good memories.

How we came to own Chloe is all due to Bjorn.  We both knew we would need a new car when baby came (have you RIDDEN in Bjorn's truck?  the death wobble was enough to scare anyone off.  Not to mention it didn't have room for a carseat.....) We quickly got a SAAB after selling the truck a week or two before Gabe's birth.  Neither of us loved it though.  And after it broke down on me twice we were ready to move on. 

Car shopping is number 2 of things I absolutely HATE doing in life.  So I left it all up to Bjorn. I gave him a list of my criteria (4 doors, at least 25 MPG, fit stroller in back, not hideous color.... that's about it) and off he went.  HIS criteria made the search a bit harder (4WD or AWD, and manual transmission a must).  I'll skip the boring parts here and sum it up with "5 car dealerships and 10 hours of shopping/looking/negotiating later- Chloe landed in our lap".  The best part was that I was only present for 2 hours of this shoppping!  While I was at work Bjorn would take little dude, car seat, stroller, diaper bag and all, and drive around to different dealers.  He would test drive a car, feed the baby, make an offer, change a diaper, negotiate... I was pretty impressed.  We were able to trade in our SAAB, pay a little more cash, and the title was ours!  

I love this sporty, trustworthy car already.  I didn't know this is what I wanted, but she perfeclty fits my life style and personality. We  are happy to have Chloe as part of the family. 

**Our Xterra is named Suzi.  Bjorn insists all cars all girls.  We tried out a few names and settled on Chloe pretty quickly. It's much easier to decide car names than baby names!