Meet: The Bob

I never thought I'd say this, but- we have a minivan, and we feel like rockstars.

When Christopher and I first met, back in 2004, I drove a 2002 Convertible Kia Sportage, a car that I had payed for with nothing other than my very own money. After we married, we upgraded to a 2005 Chevy Tracker, with both of our money. It was our "family car", or so we thought. When we signed the paperwork and purchased it, we had our future in mind. I guess we never really saw ourselves having 3 children, especially not so soon, but- I swear we thought it would carry us through life for the next ten years at least.

When we became pregnant with the bean, it was obvious that the Tracker just wouldn't cut it anymore. We barely fit into it as it was, our knees were pressed into our chests when we sat, we couldn't store both a stroller and a grocery bag at the same time- there was no way we could squeeze in another car seat. We needed to upgrade.

One afternoon, Christopher was browsing around online, looking to see what was available at local dealerships (something he had been doing quite often), when he came across a 2007 maroon colored Honda Odyssey, in our price range. It had to be ours.

Somehow, within just minutes of laying eyes on it, Eleanore had nicknamed our new minivan "The Bob". I don't know where it came from, I think it was maybe a misunderstanding of the word "van", but... 5 hours later, after an exhausting buying process, Christopher and I were the proud owners of The Bob.

The name stuck.

Base Easter Egg Hunt 2010

On Saturday we woke up bright and early (against Christopher's wishes, of course), shoveled oatmeal berry pancakes into our mouths fast as we could, quickly got dressed and then rushed ourselves down the street to the Base Easter Egg Hunt!

We hadn't even made it down the driveway, when Eleanore tripped over her own feet, ate cement, and ended up with a bloody nose. Get up big girl, get up! Rather than standing there crying (I'm surprised she didn't knock a tooth out with that fall), I shoo'd away the pain and replaced it with happy thoughts of the Easter Bunny, who waiting just around the corner for us. Usually, I might have babied her a little bit more, (the sight of blood usually brings out the "there there" side of me) but we were running late, and if we didn't hurry, we'd miss the baby hunt!


We got there just as the youngest of the bunch was heading out onto the field. Christopher helped me free Charlie from the ERGO, I handed over my camera, and egg huntin' we went!


This wasn't Charlie's first egg hunt, but it was his first egg hunt that he was awake for. We went to the same hunt last year (it was just as windy then too), but he had stayed snuggly warm up against my chest while his Sister went out and had all of the fun.

I squatted down beside him in the field, picked up an egg, and dropped it into his basket. "See, like this!". He looked into the bag at the blue plastic egg, not sure what to think of it. So I picked up another egg, and held it out for him. "Now you put it into the basket", I insisted. I set it into his lumpy little hand, it barely fit, and together we let go of it, letting it fall down to lay beside the other egg. Finally, a squeal of delight. What fun egg hunting is, he decided! 6 more eggs into the bag, and by then, we decided it would be best to clear the grass and head back to show Daddy and Sister what we had found.


After all of our excitement, Charlie and I pulled up a shady spot under a tree, to explore our brightly colored candy filled eggs. No matter that they were filled with jawbreakers and bubblegum, he doesn't know what those things are yet anyways, and certainly wouldn't miss them when I threw them out. All he cared about, was the brightly colored snap-together treasures.


Christopher and Eleanore hurried away to the hunt for 3-4 year olds, anticipation pushing Miss Elie the whole way. After awhile of sitting under the tree, Charlie and I decided to go watch. Mostly we had wanted to stay out of the way, and out of the wind, but after sitting on the cold ground long enough for my legs to fall asleep, it was time to get up and show Sister some enthusiasm.


A very happy girl indeed. She only found 4 eggs, due to being confused as to why her Daddy couldn't join her on the field (they weren't allowing parents on the field? they're just babies!), but as soon as he was by her side, she was able to focus and grab at least 4.



Rather than staying and going through our eggs there on the field like we did last year, we decided to head back home. The wind was too strong to stay still for more than a few minutes at a time, and the kids really hadn't gotten that many eggs anyways.

The walk home was nice. Breezy, a bit chilly, but so full of excitement. Now they're extra excited for the Easter Bunny to visit our house next weekend. This time though, he won't be filling the eggs with icky tooth breaking rock hard candy, he'll be filling them with pennies, nickels, and soft chewy tootsie rolls.