This shameless donut plug is brought to you by us

 This is the first year we've had the Jeep, so we were excited to drive Gladys to the beach. Certain people wanted to name her Ruby as she is a Rubicon, but I vetoed because there's probably a million Jeeps out there named Ruby for that very reason. We also had arguments over whether gladiators could even BE women- they could- and how many people named Gladys do you come across these days? Dada says she's my Jeep. I say she's not. He says if she is HIS Jeep, he's changing the name. I guess she's mine.

Anyway, Jeeps have duckies. It's a whole thing. Well, Duck Donuts happened to have a bin of duckies that a certain someone delved into so we also got to "duck" some other Jeeps while we were at the beach. So fun! One of those ridiculous acts of random, silly kindness that I love!

This kid is a walking Duck Donuts advertisement these days. While the water bottle didn't come home with us, I'd bought the hoodie last year to replace his previous OBX hoodie that he utterly destroyed. Maybe I should buy stock...

I suppose if you have to get up, having a still-warm donut is an excellent way to have to do it... that's the same smile our friend Dawson would give whomever handed him his first cup of coffee at camp. Good times.

That is indeed bacon on the bottom left ones.

New addition

Some of you know that our eldest vehicle, Pepe the Pilot, is indeed on the elderly side. He's a 2005 Honda. We took him in at the end of last year to see what could be done to shore up his underparts since, like many similar models in our climate, the Ohio salt brine has done a number on him. Sadly, there was nothing to be done- his frame is too rusted to weld anything TO it to improve it. At some point his bum is just going to fall off, probably. So we have had it in the back of our minds that we should probably be on the lookout for a new-to-us vehicle. We've been test driving and checking things out slowly but surely, trying not to fall in love or anything. You know how it is. 

Assuming that towards the end of the year dealers might be more willing to make a deal and hitting the last day of the month during that time frame seemed like a good idea. 

What we probably shouldn't have done is take Thing Three test driving with us. I'm sure our purchase had absolutely nothing to do with his nonstop chant of "Jeep! Jeep! Jeep!" emanating from the backseat. At least we knew what his vote was. 

Either way, allow me to introduce (Badass) Gladys! There's been some pushback about having this Gladiator be a HER but I figured since it's been almost 18 years since I've had Seal, it was high time for a female. I Googled it, and there were indeed female gladiators back in the day. 

We've had the roof off once and a certain child keeps campaigning to take the doors off, but as it's gotten chilly that might have to wait until next year. We've also acquired our first duckie, which is apparently a part of Jeep culture; if someone likes your Jeep, they leave you a toy which you then display on your dash. Now you know why some Jeeps you see have an entire line of them across their front! 

We drove a lot of PIlots and some Highlanders and both of those felt completely comfortable and familiar. We ended up going with the Jeep because we figured if we got her we would be more intentional about building in fun activities. A Jeep can go places that a Pilot can't necessarily, or at least not well. We could drive her in the sand at the beach, something Pepe would really not appreciate. She's also a workhorse as she's part truck. We can't fit all 5 of us and both dogs in her unless the dogs ride in the back, but since it's increasingly rare that all 5 of us and both dogs go anywhere together, we didn't feel it was a big enough issue to pass on.

Thing Three's first crush, haha. 

Come on out and we will take you for a spin!