When we added our third carseat, we got our first van.  Josh’s family was kind enough to trade us their caravan for our sedan.

We loved that van.

Sure, those Missouri roads had long ago stolen all four hubcaps.  And my two-year-old had not-so-long ago stolen the rear view mirror.

(He’s no longer allowed to play loose in the van.)

But we loved that van.

It had stickers in the windows.

(Not as many as the sedan had – did you ever got those off, Gammy and Pop Pop?)

But we loved that van.

We took that van to my mom’s house for the holidays.  It snowed there.  A good six inches.  They live at the top of a steepish hill.

We loved that van.

We tried to get you up that hill, Van.

And we know you tried, too.

We’re sorry.

We would also like to apologize to the stump.

That stump will never be the same.

But it was minor damage, really.

Until we went down again the next morning to get you with a tractor.

Maybe we should have waited for the ice to thaw a bit.

Oh, well.

We loved that van.