End of Year Overview – 2020
This year felt particularly long. Personally, 2020 brought some amazing changes to my life but also some adjustments due to the Coronavirus. I am thankful to have my family healthy throughout this year and that we are safe with all of our needs met.
Here are a few of our highlights from 2020:
- Coronavirus, COVID-19 changed daily life for everyone
- Traveled to Aisa at the beginning of 2020 and stayed in Thailand, Cambodia, and Japan
- Discovered some beautiful trails along Guanella Pass
- Bear turned 6 years old
- Ike turned 9 years old
- Celebrated 1 year in our house
- Had our backyard landscaped to have grass and trees
- Welcomed baby Holland into our lives!
A Whole Different Routine
Who knew at the start of this year that our lives would completely change. I was going into the office each day and looking forward to my 2-weeks of vacation time to visit Asia. What we didn’t see coming was our community changing to be socially distanced, offices moving to remote working, and wearing masks in public.
Travel to Asia
Reed and I went to Asia at the beginning of March. At that time, the Coronavirus was only in California and Washington. There were warnings about traveling to Asia, but there were little to no cases in the areas where we were staying. Even just one case at that point had us worried. With all of the new travel restrictions, we spent time on empty resorts and enjoying ancient ruins without crowds. It was a once in a lifetime experience that I’ll treasure for the rest of my life.
We traveled to Thailand, Cambodia, and Japan. In Thailand, we stayed in Phuket and took the ferry one day to see Phi Phi Island (pictured above). It was funny to me that Phi Phi had a party vibe to it. It was also hot out, but I got some amazing Pad Thai and has some non-alcoholic drinks at the beach.
In Phuket, we saw the Big Buddha and Wat Chalong. It was my first time visiting a Wat! The other pictures are of the Tea House at the Intercontinental Phuket and the Elephant Sanctuary. The Intercontinental had just opened with some rooms still being finished. I loved having a pool to myself and their breakfast buffet was amazing. Who knew you could have fried rice for breakfast? Phuket Elephant Sanctuary was the only excursion we booked. It was a wonderful experience seeing rescued elephants enjoying their older years in the sanctuary.
Our next leg of the trip took us to Siem Reap, Cambodia. I was not expecting to love Cambodia as much as I did. We stayed at the Jaya House and explored Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples. I loved discovering the history of Cambodia and learned that the staff at the hotel were very proud of their heritage. Cambodia will remain one of my most memorable places I visited.
The last leg of the trip took us to Tokyo where we only stayed for a couple of nights. We didn’t get to see much in Tokyo because at this point we were starting to worry about the Coronavirus. We felt so silly wearing our masks at the time. Reed and I visited the Imperial Palace Gardens and saw the beautiful Cherry Blossoms. We also went to Sensō-Ji Shrine and got our fortunes. Our time in Tokyo was too short, and I hope to go back and see some other places in Japan in the future.
Baby Gibson on Board!
The trip became even more special when we found out that I was pregnant! I was stressed worrying about everything from overheating to eating something that I shouldn’t. Even with all of the worrying, Reed and I were so excited! We used our vacation time to celebrate the pregnancy and talked about baby names and what our lives would look like as parents.
A Distanced Way of Life
The majority of 2020 for me was spent being pregnant for the first time. Everything was a new experience. It was nice that my office moved to work from home as soon as I got back to the United States. I was far too sick from jetlag and morning sickness to function in front of my coworkers. At the same time, I was expecting our remote working environment to last a month or two tops. I only saw a couple of my coworkers while pregnant and many people I worked with never knew that I was expecting. The distance made me miss our office small talk and happy hours. It was especially awkward to have to tell my manager of my pregnancy over a conference call. Remote working helped prepare me for being homebound with a newborn, but I would love to go back to an office when my maternity leave is up.
We found out after my first doctor’s appointment that we were expecting a girl! We were so excited that we decided to share the news with our family and friends right away.
Pregnancy During COVID
Reed and I did some summer hiking where we found trails that were 5 miles or less so I could still enjoy the mountains. We stayed very isolated out of fear of me catching the virus and having something happen to our baby. The news about the coronavirus kept changing to where I was terrified of miscarrying due to catching the virus. There were also scary news articles coming out about women having to labor without their significant others due to new hospital restrictions. Other articles talked about women having to push during labor with a mask on and having their babies taken away if they tested positive for COVID. Most of these articles came out around March-June. I kept hoping things would change by my November due date.
Meeting our Daughter
I thank God that I was able to have a wonderful birth to welcome our baby girl into the world. It was incredibly stressful to have to go to all of my doctor appointments alone but when the time came for our baby to arrive, Reed was right by my side cheering me on. Holland Monica Gibson was born on 11/5 weighing 7 lbs. 15 ounces and was 19.25 inches long.
I wrote down everything about our daughter’s birth because I knew that I would quickly forget the details. Here’s the link to Holland’s Birth Story.
Back in December of 2019 Reed and I knew that we would love to grow our family. I didn’t want to get my hopes up but thought it would be amazing to celebrate the next Christmas with a new family member. At the beginning of the year, I felt like we waited for the worst possible time to try to have a baby. Looking back now this was the perfect time for our family to grow. Our baby brought our families hope and joy in a strange time. Holland is by far our greatest blessing in 2020.
Our Fur Baby is Adjusting
I should add that welcoming a baby has been particularly hard for our first baby, Bear dog. He doesn’t like hearing us talk to the baby. He absolutely hates it when the baby cries. He’ll leave the room and sadly will no longer sleep in our bedroom with us because of the baby. Bear also is jealous that the baby is getting toys. He will take any baby toys he can find and will bring them to the backyard to tear up. I think eventually he will become okay with Holland, but it probably won’t be until she’s a toddler. Thank goodness our bunny Ike seems unphased by the baby’s arrival!
Job Updates
At the beginning of this year, Reed took a new job as an Artificial Intelligence Software Engineer at a startup in Boulder. He has thrived at his new job and move to a Sr. Engineer by the end of the year. I also accepted a promotion this year and plan to go back to work in the late Spring of 2021 once my maternity leave is up. We are feeling very fortunate to have jobs this year with everything that’s happened.
Cooking Habits
Each year I’ve added a few notes about foods we liked to cook. This year we ordered takeout and picked up fast food a lot. I craved tons of protein and constantly asked Reed to pick up ChickFila and Panera Bread. We didn’t cook as much together due to my fatigue, but we enjoyed making chicken fajitas, pizza rolls with homemade dough, and pistachio-crusted salmon. Strangely due to pregnancy, I could no longer eat pasta without getting sick, so we had to omit all pasta dishes. I also made Thai Basil fried rice and Pad Thai for the first time this year. Visiting Thailand made me love Thai food even more. I can’t get enough Thai Tofu Curry either!
Hopeful for 2021
It seems like it might take some time before life starts to look like it did pre-COVID. Our daughter might grow up thinking that people have always worn masks when venturing outside of the house. I am hopeful that we will soon have a vaccine and be able to get back to socializing. It would be pretty nice to be able to travel again.
Being a mom is something I’ve always dreamed about and I can’t wait to start the new year already a mom to my baby girl. I just want to enjoy this time with our little family. I feel so happy with this new stage of life and can’t wait to see how our family grows over the next decade.
