The Detroit Auto Show 2012

The Detroit Auto Show, more famously known as the North American Auto Show is THE largest auto show in the country.  It makes sense as Detroit is the Motor City and home to all domestic and a few foreign (at least their home base in the States) auto makers' headquarters.  The first week of the show isn't even open to the public and only open to those in the industry.  That's when the auto makers make their newest model and concept reveals for the next few years.

Andy has been working for Bosch since 2010 and one of their largest departments is automotive components.  Our first time living in Michigan, we moved during the first week of the show, so Andy didn't get to attend.  His second year with Bosch, we were moving from SC to Germany, so it wasn't an option either.  This was the first year, we were in the right place at the right time.  Our friends the Reeses planned to go with us as well, since Tom also works for Bosch in an automotive capacity.  Both Brady and Sam love cars, so we figured they'd be well behaved and have a great time.

Our first stop was the Ford booth.  The Mustangs were front and center.

Brady saw people getting in and out of the cars and immediately wanted out of his stroller to get in too.  Once he was out, that was it, he wanted inside every single car!  I ended up pushing an empty stroller the whole time.  What's great about the car show is you can get in almost every single car, play with everything, and there's no salesperson breathing down your neck trying to sell you the car.  It's a great way to shop around if you're in the market for a new car (which we may be for Andy in the next year or so).

Ainsley and Tom in the Stang.

Brady was very patient (most of the time) in waiting his turn to get in any car.  This is him in the Stang.

Brady had been talking the night before and in the morning before we left about how he was going to the car show with Sam and Ainsley.  He gets excited in the car when he sees emergency vehicles and we saw one on the way.  Andy told Brady and he very seriously said, "No! Go to car show with Sam and Ainsley." He was excited to see race cars, so this is him and Ainsley posed in front of the first one we saw.

They were happy to be in a car whether it was in the driver's seat or even the back seat.

Brady scoping out a Ford Expedition (which we were all expecting to be larger; it was not on par with size of the GM large SUVs).

I may be driving a minivan for now, but since we bought it two years ago, I've been talking about how my next car will be a Suburban.  It has the same seating capacity AND a big trunk.  We fill up the trunk in my van with the back row folded down, so we will need that space and the seating eventually.  This is me and Brady in the GMC equivalent of the Suburban, the Yukon XL.

Brady and I chilling out in my "baby."

Kia had set up a fun place for kids to dance around and see themselves on a big screen with the dancing hamster you see in their commercials.  Brady got a kick out it!

In the back of a Dodge Grand Caravan.  They had double pull down TV screens and a movie actually playing on it.  I was worried we wouldn't get the kids out ;)

I couldn't remember the name of this car (the boys knew exactly what it was of course), but I thought it was really cool with the door that open up from the side.  There was also a huge 17" touch screen in the front.

This one is for my dad.  Every time he sees a Fiat commercial, he says, "Don't ever buy a Fiat!"

We walked around for three whole hours and didn't even make it to every single auto maker's booth, it was just that large!  We were glad we finally made it there after almost three years with Bosch.  I don't think we would've had this opportunity (or many others we've had in the last three years) without them.