On Saturday, I had plans to take my four kids to a “Junior Olympics” event in a nearby town.  I mentioned the event to a friend, and she was interested in going with her two daughters, so I offered to swing by and pick them up and we’d make a day of it.

Since I’m a Child Passenger Safety Technician, you can bet that any children riding in my vehicle will be appropriately secured in carseats.  I did a little rearranging of our collection of carseats, and here’s what I was able to do in the 8-passenger Sienna.

Middle row:  (The middle row in a Sienna will allow practically any combination of seats, including two Husky/Regents and a Marathon, but this was Saturday’s setup.)

• 5-year-old, forward facing in Britax Marathon
• 2-year-old, rear facing in Britax Marathon
• 7-year-old, in high-back booster (we removed the booster at each stop to enable third-row access)

Third row:  (This is the fun one, because in 48″-width minivan 3rd rows, it is possible to do 3-across only with the narrowest of seats.  The Sienna has 52″ and two sets of LATCH anchors, which makes more scenarios possible.)

• Almost-3-year-old, forward facing in a Cosco Touriva (installed with seatbelt in the non-LATCH position)
• 4-year-old, forward facing in a Fisher Price Safe Voyage Deluxe (installed with LATCH)
• 5-year-old, forward facing in a Britax Husky (installed with Long Belt Path)

The third row seats were a tight fit, but all had good independent installs.

If you’re not a carseat nut like me, this may not mean a lot to you, but I think it’s great that I can fit six carseats in a vehicle that gets 24 miles to the gallon.

The day was a lot more fun when shared with friends!

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