I love my Valco

*Warning, if you are not pregnant or don't have kids you might find this post very boring...Actually, even if you are preggo or have kids you might find it boring!

When I was pregnant with Asher I was obsessed with one thing....The STROLLER! I literally spent hours upon hours looking at them, talking to parents, reading reviews, and testing them out. I basically started checking them out in my first trimester and didn't finally decided on one until April after Asher was born....So that is about 8 months or so of thinking about strollers!!!! (I know, I already said I was obsessed! Thank goodness Andrew was in Iraq, or he would have gone crazy with all my stroller talk!) I knew before I got pregnant I wanted the Maclaren umbrella stroller. My mother-in-law Sharon got that for us and I love it! It was the "main" stroller that I had a hard time with.

There are SO many options and strollers are SOOOO expensive! According to one website I found there are 8 different types: umbrella, lightweight, travel systems, universal car seat carriers, prams, all-terrain, jogging, and multi-function strollers! (do you see why it is so overwhelming to decide!) I really didn't want to be one of those parents that had 4 different strollers for only 1 baby and then would need all different strollers the second we had another baby! But man, kinda of like wedding stuff, baby stores can make you feel like you need it all!!! (which you don't!)I secretly think stroller companies all have a pact together to make you have to buy different strollers the more kids you have!

After giving up my impractical desire for the $900 Bugaboo, I moved onto the Quinny. That was only $500, so things were looking better :) Then I looked at Mountain Buggy, the Orbit (Oh man, this is the most amazing stroller! If only we just wanted 1 kid!!!)Phil and Ted, the BOB, Valco and every other one that the book Baby Bargains recommends.

After hours and hours, I finally decided I couldn't buy a stroller that couldn't expand with us, since I knew we wanted more kids. That left me 2 options!! 2 out of 100's of different strollers....I am telling you it is a racket!!! (some strollers have a little foot board you can add to give the older child something to ride on, but I wanted an actual seat) My two options were the Phil and Ted and the Valco. After more hours of conversation, and testing, I went with the Valco Tri-mode and man, am I glad I did! I wanted a stroller that aside from expanding for more kids, could be used newborn to 4yrs. old+, that I could run with, go on both unpaved trails, and bumpy city sidewalks, have good storage, be light enough and fold compact enough to actually use regularly by myself (no sense having a stroller that throws your back out every time you take it in and out of the car) and not break the bank for! At our baby shower in VA, the stroller was the main gift that everyone could go in on and we were given enough to cover the whole cost of a brand new one I found on ebay! It was a huge blessing!

Asher in his stroller the day we got it

I see you! Asher loves putting toys in the storage basket

All warm and protected no matter the weather

I have used it in the Rocky Mountain National Forest, unpaved trails all over Colorado Springs, the narrow cobblestone sidewalks of Carmel, on the beach, running sprints during my Crossfit workouts and just normal walks around base.

Folds small enough to fit on the dog's crate! This was key in our little Co. Springs house

Loaded down with groceries from the commissary

That storage area holds SO much!

Just last week I walked to the commissary (military grocery store on base) and as I walked back, I started thinking about how many groceries I fit in the stroller and how even with the 2nd seat, I would still be able to. (when you add the second seat to the Phil and Ted, you lose most of your storage space)

I fit the following:

3 dozen eggs

2 boxes of stick butter (2 pds total)

1 pound tub of cottage cheese

2 pound tub of yogurt

1 box of graham crackers

a box of wax paper

6.5 pounds of sweet potato's

and 12.5 pounds of meat!

That is 24+ pds of groceries and I could have fit more! None of them were in Asher's sitting area and I could still steer the stroller with 1 hand! Yup, I made the right decision. I really love this stroller!