I bought my first car the winter after I graduated college — a Ford Focus, which I thought would end up being a really great family car.  Five years later, when Baby Jumper came into our lives, everyone warned us that we’d soon be graduating to a SUV, but I laughed them off.  This car was my first baby.  I worked hard to pay it off before Baby Jumper was born, and had every intention of owning this car until I ran it into the ground.  In other words, me + SUV = not happening.

We travel long distance 3-4 times per year.  I used to brag that my car had a fairly large trunk and would hold all of our belongings.  My Focus was a great road-trip car with its excellent gas mileage.

But now that Baby Jumper is here, we have so much more to pack.  This past spring, we took our first road-trip to Washington, D.C.  I agonized over how we were going to pack the car and fit everything we needed for Baby Jumper.  Our stroller just barely fit into my Focus, and there was no way we could pack the Pack n Play and our suitcase on top of that. We ended up having to borrow my dad’s SUV in order to pack everything.

Our trip to D.C. was such a breeze in my dad’s SUV.  Papa Jumper kept commenting on how nice the drive was, and how spacious the seating was.  It was far easier getting Baby Jumper in and out of my dad’s SUV than it was in my Focus.  Still, I didn’t want to trade in my Focus.  I was determined that we would make the car work.

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The thing is though, Baby Jumper keeps growing.  Her toys keep getting bigger.  We travel so frequently that we were starting to worry how we’d pack all of our things for vacations.  And what happens when we have another baby?  How will we fit two car seats and a bigger stroller in our trunk?  It just wasn’t going to happen.

So at the end of April, we started looking for SUVs.  We were able to narrow it down to a specific SUV, a Ford Edge, and went from there.  We price shopped online, made a few phone calls, and did lots of research.  It really helps that Papa Jumper is a car-geek and knows his stuff.  We knew the value of the vehicle we were looking at, and how much we could get for my trade.  Later that week, we went to a dealership to test drive.  Before we left the house we agreed that we were “just looking” but ended up coming home with our new SUV that very night.

It’s been two months since we bought the new vehicle, and I have to admit that I’m so very glad that we made this purchase.  It’s easier to drive and has so much more space.  I almost never take the stroller out of the trunk now and can still fit two weeks’ worth of groceries in there.  We’re really looking forward to an easier drive to the beach trip we have planned this summer.

I was really sad to trade in the Focus:  it was the first car I bought, it was the car we drove to the airport for our honeymoon, and the car we brought home Baby Jumper in.  But I’m looking forward to all the new memories we will make in our new car.

Did you get an SUV or larger vehicle after you had children?