one year and 13k miles with our 2016 Honda Pilot

Well we are officially a year in with our first "family" car! And despite what many nay-sayers have said, never once have I regretted my decision to go with SUV instead of minivan. We have moved car seats around over the last year, more times than I care to admit (our little princess probably needs a 4th row of her own, haha!) but for the time being we have settled with the twins on each side of little A in the second row and little d in the 3rd row, with the other seat beside him kept down for groceries or just so that he can get in and out. The back storage area we use for the double umbrella stroller we have, but most of the year we had kept the City Select there. I haven't tried fitting the double BOB in there yet, since I haven't had a reason to, but especially because all 3 wheels pop off so easily, I know it will fit in there somehow ;)

I still can't believe we bought such a large car!! I mean, I knew we needed it but I guess with the twins the whole family of 4 to 6 thing happened so fast that even waiting till the twins were almost two months old still felt like we were rushing into that big of a purchase! I am extremely grateful that were were able to have saved enough money to pay for the whole thing and not have to worry about monthly payments... that "rainy day/emergency fund" we re-started after buying our house turned out to be a huge lifesaver!!! Credit to that goes 100% to Drew, since our conversation before we bought our house was a little something like this (me) "We should just put all of our money into the house, or most of it, since we have two perfectly good cars that will last us forever!" (Drew) "We should definitely hold back some of our savings in case we need it in the future" OBVIOUSLY he had no idea we would be getting pregnant with twins a year later, but I am so thankful for his insight!

We are coming up on that time when we are transitioning the twins to convertible car seats... a Radian has been ordered as of earlier this week (Red, per little A's request), so we will be moving Lo to A's current car seat (which is still good till November 2017), and she will get the new one. I recently was at the grocery store and in the parking lot some AAA people were offering car seat checks, so an hour later (and so much crying!! I thought it would be a quick check but it was super thorough, and I learned a lot so I am glad I did it!), I found out that we are about 1/2 inch away from little A needing a new car seat because she has nearly outgrown her current one, and Lo is the same for his baby carseat! Thankfully, at least Lan is our chunky little shortie so we can hold off till Black Friday later this year to get him a new carseat! Anyways, long story short, we shall see how the car seats stack up once we have to have all these huge car seats in there, but we are getting all Radians with the hope that the whole 3-across business will be a little easier for us to handle.

I feel like after having this car for a year with my (now) 1 year old twins, 3 year old and 5 year old, I can easily rattle off some pros and cons... (Honda Pilot 2016 AWD)

Cons:
-the side doors don't open automatically (aka it's not a minivan, with that convenience factor). which I guess is a problem if you aren't able to carry two babies at once while opening a door, but to be honest I have mastered that (with the help of my Ergo of course!)
-the 3rd row doesn't have a ton of legroom, which isn't much of an issue for now, since mostly 5 year olds hang out back there. But I have sat back there and been just fine.
-I usually have to help my kids into the car. But I feel like that would be the case regardless of what car I had since my kids are so young.
-Carpooling is not as easy as it would be with a minivan, which would be a problem I guess if I didn't already have FOUR kids in my car all the time (3 with huge car seats), which is plenty most of the time. I certainly don't mind carpooling little d's friends with boosters, but only two boosters fit in the 3rd row, with a VERY small space inbetween as the middle "seat". Only 7 more years till we have no more car seats and I can just have kids hop into my car and we can use the awesome sliding middle seats to get into the 3rd row instead of going through the trunk.
-no CD/DVD port, which is maybe just a newer car thing because it has bluetooth and USB access but I was really befuddled that there would be no way to play a CD. Maybe I'm just old??

Pros:
-The most important thing to me is that I LOVE the car that I have to drive every day....and I do! I love my Pilot. I don't think I have ever said that about a car but it is true! because I have also never researched a car so much in my whole life!!
-We are able to fit two infant carriers and a convertible car seat across the middle row easily
-It drives very smoothly, compared to other larger SUVs and minivans I test drove (OK so I never actually drove a minivan but I sat in one) it doesn't feel like I am driving a large car.
-The all wheel drive is automatic on my car. I know that is not the case with all Honda Pilots but I am so grateful that mine does because it gives me security and peace of mind when I drive in rain or snow.
-Everyone and their mother told us to get leather interior and I am SO glad we did!! We never have drinks other than water in there, but there are plenty of crumbs and they are so much easier to clean up!! I still can't believe I had a car with cloth interior... It felt like I could never get that thing clean!
-cupholders EVERYWHERE. I think there are something like 20 cupholders in the whole car, which is awesome for holding snacks or waterbottles or little toys.
-Side camera, rear backup camera...having that was on the TOP of my list for potential cars when I knew we needed to go BIG. It terrifies me to not know my way around a car and these two things helped me feel more comfortable navigating my big SUV around.
-Navigation. We initially got the navigation begrudgingly because I thought, I have gps on my phone! who needs it? But the car we wanted had Nav, so I went along with it... and now I LOVE it!! It is so nice to have it connected to the car and not have to use the data on my phone. I use it all the time, sometimes just to see what is the quickest way to Costco or to keep my kids sane by letting them count down the minutes or miles with the gps till we get home.
-BLUETOOTH!! I love being able to make and receive calls and texts without having to find my phone. Also it shows up as a little icon on my dash if my phone is in the car, so I always know if it is in the car with me (even though it is usually at the bottom of my diaper bag....) and I never have to reach into my diaper bag to access it.
-Keyless entry!I love that I can start the car from a distance if it is too hot or too cold outside and that my kids won't either burn up or freeze to death when they get into the car. I love that my keys, just like my phone, can be at the bottom of my diaper bag (let's be honest, that's the safest place for it anyway! away from grubby fingers) and as long as it is in the car I can start the car with the keyless start. Also I can unlock my door by just opening either the passenger side or driver side and it unlocks all the doors for me as long as I have the keys close to my body (again, usually in the diaper bag), which is super helpful when I am carrying two babies and don't have the time to reach into my bag to hold keys and unlock the door!)
-The diaper changing station!! haha I only half kid...the trunk space can be flush with the back of the car or can be made to go deeper, which is "grocery mode", and usually what we keep it as, because it also makes for a perfect pocket for the stroller and...allows me to easily change babies diapers! I can't tell you what a huge lifesaver that has been for me, as someone who has changed countless diapers along the backseat of a car...it has NOT been easy! Until now, haha! I have easily changed over 100 diapers in that car, and the best part is that it is made of a hard plastic which cleans easily.


Long story short... I LOVE my Pilot!!! I am so obsessed with it and I cannot think of a better car for our family. As the second most pricey purchase we have ever invested in (other than our kids....haha!) I could not be more pleased with all the updates and how spacious it is for our family. Not to mention I love to drive it, which is the most important part, anyway, right?? ;)