Well 2011 is at its end and it was one crazy year! I am epicly behind on doing full entries for all the big events from this year so here is a readers digest for the life and times of the Carters of Rota Spain in 2011.
January was great! Brad turned 31, which is according to him, his official entry into his 30's. We took our first trip to Granada, Spain. We snowboarded and took in the amazing history and sites at the Alhambra, it was a great trip! February's big news was that we found out that we were pregnant! We were so fortunate to have gotten pregnant after only 5 months of trying. It was already shaping up to be a stellar year.
As you can see from the photos in this collage, March and April were not quite what we had expected. In the first week of March a good friend of ours from Virginia came to visit and we decided to take her to Granada to go snowboarding for the first time, and on the first day on the slopes Brad was in an accident that landed him in the hospital for the next month and half! The first month was spent in the Spanish hospital in Granada having his hip and ribs put back together with hardware that will never come out, and once we finally got him moved home to the hospital in Rota, he was only there a week before they sent us off to Norfolk for more assessments. As we came to the end of April, we were finally able to set foot in our own home as a family again, only Brad was in a wheel chair for the time being, but home was better than the hospital even with the wheel chair. The one thing that kept me from totally losing my mind was having Brad's mother Denise with me while he was in the hospital. It was so nice to have her support while dealing with all the madness of dealing with the Spanish hospitals and my first trimester of pregnancy.
In May we finally got to relax and have a little more fun with Denise. She did an awesome job taking care of the house, and getting Brad to all of his appointments while I was catching up at work. Luckily in between work and physical therapy we managed to squeeze in some sight seeing. Denise and I visited Gibraltar, and she spent as much time as possible at the beach during the week while I was at work. Brad was only up for short trips at this point so we showed Denise Puerto de Santa Maria, and even got the chance to go to Feria in Rota. In preparation for the baby coming we decided to get Pepito a little brother of his own so he would have someone to keep him company when Brad and I got busy with the new baby. We named our new little addition, Lennox, and once Pepito figured out what he was, they were fast friends.
June and July went by in a blur. Lots of working for me, lots of physical therapy appointments for Brad and lots of beach time for Denise. I finally settled on paint colors for the nursery and spent an entire weekend painting a galaxy on the ceiling to inspire my little dreamer to be. The fourth of July was a busy weekend with a huge fund raiser for the morale committee at the command of which I am the president, and we took a three day trip to Albufeira Portugal. The trip to Portugal was the highlight of Denise's visit thus far, we enjoyed a lot of great food, spent time at the pool and shopped to our hearts content.
August brought the end of Denise's extended stay in Spain. We filled her last few days in Rota with evenings eating out, and strolling by the beach. Her final send off was after a few days touring Madrid. It was the prefect end to a strange and wonderful trip. She really made all the difference in the world for Brad and I; it would have been unimaginably difficult to make it through his recovery with out her help and support. The rest of August was strangely quiet. Brad and I mostly just spent it getting to know each other again without our spicy companion Denise. There was a definite hole in our lives once she was gone, but by the end of September we were pretty much back to normal, or as normal as things could be after a catastrophic snowboarding accident and nearing the 9th month of pregnancy.
I made a new friend bonding over the joys of pregnancy and I got to do some maternity photos for her and her husband just a few days before she gave birth. All through her shoot we kept talking about how funny it would be if she were to go into labor, at nearly 40 weeks, so she wouldn't have liked anything more, luckily it was only a couple days after the shoot when she gave birth to their little boy. The other big happening in September was that Brad and I got to spend a week in Marbella, at the resort that Dave had booked for the trip he and Denise never got to take because of Brad's accident. We felt very hip having the opportunity to take a "babymoon," its the newest craze to take a vacation to celebrate your last times together as just a couple, and it was really nice.
October was the month of beer and baby! Brad brewed his first beer and I gave birth to our first child. I thought that last month would never end, but finally 1 week overdue little Sonora Teagan Carter was brought into the world via cesarean section after nearly 30 hours of laboring in vain. She was in there good and had no intention of vacating of her own will, so I sent the Doc in after her. There were no complications with the exception of her not wanting to come out, but in the end there she was, all 8lbs 4oz's of her.
The first week of November was one for the record books. Every moment was loaded with joy, as I got to spend time with my mom, my sister, and my new baby girl. We celebrated our first Thanksgiving as a family of three, and much like all the other days, Sonora was highlight of the evening. I was on maternity leave for the entire month of November and time has never flow by so quickly. Before I knew it it was early in December and time to return back to work.
Sonora's first Christmas season was full of wonder, mostly because she is so new to the world which means pretty much everything is awe-inspiring to a baby. Brad and I have been completely possessed by our love and devotion to our little bundle of joy.
Oh what a difference a year can bring, but the most important things are those that can manage to stay the same. For Brad and I, the constant is our devotion to one another, and we couldn't be happier to have our love personified in our sweet baby girl.
January was great! Brad turned 31, which is according to him, his official entry into his 30's. We took our first trip to Granada, Spain. We snowboarded and took in the amazing history and sites at the Alhambra, it was a great trip! February's big news was that we found out that we were pregnant! We were so fortunate to have gotten pregnant after only 5 months of trying. It was already shaping up to be a stellar year.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, may 2012 be filled with joy, love and prosperity for everyone.
