The summer before the girls were born we bought a Honda Fit. Actually we bought it roughly one week (maybe a little less) before we found out that we were having twins. It has been a really good car for us, but I'm not entirely sure that we would have made the purchase if we'd have known about the whole twin thing beforehand.
Ian has been driving an old Honda Accord. Neither of these are options for a family about to grow to five. So, we started our search, thinking we must have to get a minivan, because what other option could there possibly be that could fit all three kiddos and their car seats (I'm so sick of car seats, by the way! Life - or at least car shopping - would so much easier, albeit dangerous, without them!). But here we ran into another problem: I want to be able to have all three kids in the middle seat (or seat just behind the driver). I'm just not comfortable with any seating combination that doesn't include all three in the middle - we talk to the girls all the time in the car and I don't want that to change or become more difficult, I don't want to split up C & E and put one of them in the back, and I don't want to put the new baby in the back. We were in a bit of a pickle.
From what we could find, it seemed like the 8-passenger model of the Honda Odyssey was our only real option. The Toyota Sienna has a "temporary" third seat for the middle row, but not one that could accommodate a car seat. We went to look at it anyway, though. And to our surprise, on the lot we were distracted by another car - the Venza. This car looks kinda SUVish, but technically falls into the "wagon" category. But, this isn't your Clark Griswold station wagon, we wouldn't have looked at that.
The choice came down to the Odyssey or the Venza and the Venza won. The Odyssey seemed like so much more room than we currently need. The Venza has plenty of trunk space, and room for all three car seats - even more room when the girls move to boosters instead of the full-blown, 5-point harness seats. There is more leg room in the Venza than in the Odyssey, which works great for getting in and hooking the girls into the seats, etc. I have no doubt that when all the girls are bigger they will want more room to spread out. I can't imagine taking a road trip of any length in the Venza when the girls are 8 and 12. So at that point I'm sure that we'll be getting a van...but we figure that when the time comes that we really need one, we'll be able to get the newest model.
For now, we are incredibly happy with our sweet, smooth-riding Venza:
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