Aidan is Promoted to Co-Pilot

When Erin was born, our family of nine could no longer travel together. The reason? We could not all fit into our Suburban, which only holds eight. Many people seemed more concerned about this dilemma than we did. In fact, during my pregnancy, the clerk, the hairdresser or the stranger would always ask, first, "When are you due?" That question was almost always followed by, "Is this your first?" (After learning that Erin was our seventh, I would then get that shocked, speechless, dropped-jaw expression. Don't worry, nobody has actually ever fainted, thankfully). Inevitably, the third question was, "What vehicle do you drive?" We finally took the lead from these concerned people, and decided we had better do something about this problem.

We weighed our options. We could get one of those big ol' vans (we found that they are very hard to come by, unless you go with the 15 passenger vans). We could sell a couple kids and buy a brand new mini-van (very tempting!). We could add a fourth row, which faces out, into the trunk area of our Suburban (but then where do you put the big double stroller?). Or, we could keep searching for a very rare, nine-passenger Suburban with the front bench seat. We even threatened the kids, on occasion, with this solution.

Around the last week of May, we (well, Moira) found our new vehicle. We went with a nine-passenger Suburban, which we found right here in Green Bay. Aidan, being the right sized child, was the lucky one to saddle-in up front. He loves riding next to Mike, especially. They discuss diesel motors, motorcycles, trains, airplanes, or anything else that has an engine. He can see so much better, and thinks he has the second-best seat in the car, next to the driver. We're enjoying his company up front as well.

Here's Aidan, our co-pilot, lovin' his new spot in the car

Here are three other little dumplins' that I see in my rear-view mirror