2009 Recap…..WOW!!! What a year!

Well, 2009 was a crazy year for us. It actually started the week before Christmas 2008, when we officially all moved to Winnemucca, Nevada (a town of about 10,000 people). A BIG change from the bright lights of Vegas…..but we did it. We made it just in time for Jessica to get the tree set up. It was a different Christmas last year, not having too many members of the family around and still trying to unpack.

In February, Adam was in the hospital for most of it. That was a trying month. No, they still have never fully diagnosed the stomach and bleeding issues that Adam had, but he went into the hospital around the 10th of February and was released on the last day of the month. Everything is good now……If you want to see some pictures and read up on that, you can see those on the February blog posts.

In May, Jessica and Adam went to Belgium and England for 2 weeks. This was the first time that Adam was able to go back to England since his mission and was for our 15 year anniversary. We spent 3 days with Ed, Shannon and family, saw some great WWII sites and got some Belgium chocolate…..yum!!! Then it was off to England where we went around London, to Stonehenge, to Warwick Castle, saw Uncle George, the Lake District, the Preston and London Temples, saw Adam’s Mission President (who is the President of the Preston MTC), a tour of Old Trafford Stadium (where Man U plays) and a trip to Lime Park (OH Mr. Darcy)!!!! All these pictures are also on our older blog posts.

The summer was packed with trips to Lake Powell and Megan’s wedding....lots and lots of traveling. The fall brought soccer for Jaris, James and Kyra (her first year), where Jaris’ team won the 20th annual U12 tournament, which qualified them to play in a tournament in San Francisco. They played in that in December, and lost, but had a great time.

That brings us to Christmas 2009. The year has been great! We have had so many fun times this year. We’ve posted some of the 2009 Christmas morning pictures below you may enjoy! Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year!

Soccer Tournament Win for Jaris

Yesterday, in the wind and braving the cold Winnemucca day of 50 degrees.......Jairs' soccer team played in the 20th annual Winnemucca Regional U12 tournament. As her father (with my totally un-bias opinion)....SHE DID AWESOME!!!!!!

They played a round robin portion where they had three games. They lost the first but killed the other teams in the next two and went into the elimination round as the second place team....which qualified them for the championship match. The team they played for the championship had not lost a game all year and her team had lost to them earlier in the year. It was a good match. The other team went up 1 to nothing inside 10 minutes, but Jaris' team came back less than 10 minutes later. After half time, the other team scored again, but then had a hand ball called on them in the penalty box in the closing minutes of the game and Jaris' team tied it up on the penalty kick. Then, with just minutes left in the game, Jaris' team put in the winning goal and won the championship 3 to 2!!!

This qualifies them to play in the regional game in Northern California in December!!!! Jaris played so well at both goal keeper and mid-fielder. Here are a few pictures of the celebration and the trophy!!! Way to go Jaris!!!!

First day of School and First for Kindergarten for Kyra

Well, yesterday was the first day of school here in the Muck! Kyra started kindergarten….she was so excited. She was able to see her class room and meet her teacher a couple days before, which helped her get ready. Jaris and James were both excited as well. Summer went too quickly, and that’s why we haven’t had time to update the site too much. Here are some pictures of the first day for the kids. They were sooooo tired by the end of the day…..they just flopped down……in the last pictures.

James is 9.....

Here are some pictures of James' birthday. He wanted an Indianan Jone birthday cake and to go bowling! So that's what we did! The candles on the cake are snakes....

He had a great birthday. James says thanks for the presents to everyone....

Kjersten's 3rd Birthday - Fiesta!!!!

Sorry it has taken so long since we got home to make the next post. Things have been kind of busy since getting back....you know....trying to get back in the swing of things and all. Oh yeah, it was also Kjersten's birthday on the 18th. It's hard to believe she is now 3. It was great to have mom and dad Kilgore there with us, and many thanks to them for watching the monkeys while we were on our trip!

Here are some pictures from the party. She wanted to go out for Mexican food...so that's what we did. They gave her the sombreo and some fried ice cream and sang happy birthday to her! She loved it!

Enjoy the pictures!

Manchester United and Lyme Park

Well, today we visited two very special places.......

1) The Theater of Dreams a.k.a Old Trafford or Manchester United Football Stadium
2) Lyme Park - Where they filmed the movie Pride and Prejudice

At Man U, we went in the museum and took the staduim tour. We got to go into the player's lounge and the dressing room. The pictures with all the jersery's hanging up is the dressing room. Then, we got to come out of the tunnel where the players run out onto the field. Then we got to sit in the seats where they and Sir Alex sit and watch the match! It was AWESOME....for me anyway... (Jess liked it too, I think).

At Lyme Park, we toured the house, but they would not allow us to take pictures.... how sad for you....cuz you don't get to see inside like we did.....Ha ha.... We then went all over the garden and I walked out from behind the hedge like Mr. Darcy in the movie (that was Jessica's idea). We had a great time! We are excited to watch the Man U match tomorrow, even though we can't see in in the stadium....but we are close to it!

We will be catching a plane home on Sunday morning.......back to the good 'ole USA!

We made two slide shows....One for those who don't want to see Lyme Park and one for those who do. You can watch both if you really want to.....

Liverpool and Mission sites

Well, today there aren’t very many pictures. It was more of a drive around day. We started out from the Preston Temple and went through Southport out to Formby Point to the beach looking out over the Irish sea. We took a couple pictures there at the beach. Then we drove down to Crosby where I served for about 5 months and took a picture of my flat and where we did a bunch of street contacting. We then went under the Mersey River over to Birkenhead and then down to Runcorn (two other areas I served in). Then up to Liverpool and took the tour through the Beatles Story museum at the Albert Docks. That was pretty cool. There are a couple of pictures in the slide show of the museum (we weren’t supposed to take pictures in the museum, but….). We then saw this statue at the end of the slide show that was donated by the Church to the City of Liverpool for all those Saints that left for the States from the dock. There were about 9 million people that immigrated to the US that passed through the Albert Dock (not all of them were from the Church).



Tomorrow it’s off to Manchester (GO UNITED)…..the last stop before coming home….

Preston and Church History Sites

Wednesday, we drove from Windermere, in the Lake District, down to Preston and checked in at the Temple. We were fortunate to see and visit with President (and Sister) Clegg, who was Adam’s mission president, but now is the MTC President here at the Preston Temple. Next we drove into Preston for some church history!!! We started at the obelisk in Flagg Market where the first missionaries came into Preston and often preached. You will see a picture of it with Adam standing at the base in the slide show. A soggy walk down the street, because we were experiencing our first official English rain, took us to St. Wilfrid Street. This is where Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde, and other missionaries first lodged. It was here that they were tormented by evil spirits the night before the first baptisms. Avenham park was our next stop where the 1987 sesquicentennial plaque is located that commemorates the first baptisms (also in the slide show). The River Ribble and a tree lined walk (with Jess in the picture) took us by where the first baptisms took place – just across the bridge. This concrete bridge is an exact replica of the original wooden bridge. The baptisms took place just upstream from the bridge.


The next pictures are from our half hour drive north the Chatburn and Downham. It was in these two villages that Heber C. Kimball and his companion baptized around 60 people in two days. Before he went he was told not to go because the people in these villages had not accepted any religious sect for 30 years. Chatburn and Downham, today, look just like they did when Heber C. Kimball arrived, minus the cars and pavement. The last couple of shots are of the countryside. We hope you enjoy them. Next is Liverpool…the Beatles Museum, the Albert Docks, shopping and ?

Tour of the Lake District

Well today we went on a tour of the Lake District with a tour guide. It started out at about 9:30 am this morning and went all over the Lakes. It's better if I just let you know the stops and towns we saw, and then you can google map them to get a better feel for where we went.

We started at Wray Castle, then over to Beatrix Potter's house on Hill Top. We got pictures of those, but didn't have an SD card in the camera, so I can't get those onto the below slide show tonight. I'll get those on at another time. We were able to purchase a new SD card after this and get all the pictures throughout the rest of the day.

After the Potter home, we went Hawkshead (where we saw this really cool sign.....you'll know it when you see the slide show), then to Tarn Hows, Coniston, Skelwith Bridge, Elterwater, and Grasmere where we stopped for lunch. After lunch it was on to Wythburn, drove past Thirlmere Lake, and up to Keswick and took boat over Derwentwater Lake.

Then drove down through Rosthwaite, through Honister Pass and the Honister Slate mine, past Buttermere Lake and Crummock Water Lake to Brackenthwaite. Next it was over to High Lorton and across Whinlatter Pass to Thornthwaite and Braithwaite, and down to Castlerigg Stone Circle.

After that, it was down to Dove Cottage which is one of the homes of William Wordsworth. This is one of the last pictures on the slide show. After that, back to Windermere, and got back around 6 PM. That was our day. We took a lot of pictures of the country side and other things we passed. Now go crazy on the google maps as you follow the slide show.....

Stockport, Nottingham and Lake Windermere

Sorry, but we didn't take very many pictures on Sunday. We stayed in Stockport, my last area on my mission and went to church. The first picture on the slide show is of my old flat from when I was a missionary. We lived above the furniture shop...that was still there! I recognized a couple people, and we happened to be there on a Sunday went a member of the 70 (Elder Kerr) was there speaking. It was a great meeting. I talked to a few folks, but no one remembered me.....I guess I made a lasting impression.....16 years ago :(.

Oh well. After church we jumped in the car and scooted to Uncle George's house in Nottingham. He told us some great stories about mom.....I'll fill you all in later.... We went out to dinner with him and then the next morning, got out early and drove up to the Lake District to Lake Windermere. It is beautiful here. We took a boat ride on the Lake and took some pictures of the homes and the country side around the lake. Oh yeah, we also took a few shots of the drive up. Tomorrow, we are going to be here all day around the lake. We are trying to decide what type of tour to take. Stay tuned.....pictures of that tomorrow.....

Stonehenge and Warwick Castle

Today we made it from the southern part of England to the Northwest. We did a bunch of driving today....about 4 hours worth, but on the way we stopped at Stonehenge and Warwick Castle. Both were very intersting. Tonight, we are staying in Stockport (just outside of Manchester). This was my last area on my mission. We are going to church here tomorrow and then down to Nottingham to see Uncle George after church. We won't have internet until Monday night, so we will update the site again then.....

Here are some shots from Stonehenge and Warwick Castle.....At the of the slide show is a 20 second movie, so you may want to turn the music on this page off. It's a movie of a live catapult. You can't see it very well, but they do launch a big bolder.....

We are back…..We were off the grid for a few days, while staying at the London Temple.
On Wednesday morning, we got to spend time with Ed and Shannon and they showed us around Soignies (pronounced Swan-ee), Mons and on the base that Ed is on. That was a lot of fun. We took a couple pictures of the tree house that Ed has built in their backyard. Then we caught a train to London, picked up the rental car and it took us about 2 hours to drive to the London Temple. We picked up the car in downtown London at around 6 pm and hit the rush hour traffic……
Thursday morning, we completed a session in the Temple and then drove over to Canterbury. Just before entering the Cathedral, Jess got her first taste of English fish and chips! She loved it! The pictures below are of this part of the trip. Enjoy.

After Canterbury, we drove over to Dover and walked on top of the Cliffs and then went into the Dover Castle. That was pretty cool. Grandpa Storer told us about some secret war tunnels, so we took that tour, but we couldn’t take pictures, so the only shot is outside the tunnels by the sign and by a WWII gun. During this first full day in England, Jess had a bunch of firsts:
· First authentic fish and chips
· First Cathedral
· First Castle
· First Pub meal…….Yep we hit the pub for dinner on the way back to the Temple. IT WAS GOOD!

Friday morning, we got up and caught a train into London. It was raining in the morning, but by the time we got to London, and purchased umbrellas, it had stopped……of course! First stop was the London Eye, which is over the Thames River. Then on to Big Ben & Parliament, Westminster Abby, Westminster Cathedral, Buckingham Palace (where we had just missed the changing of the guards), over to Trafalgar Square, a bus ride (double decker) down to the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge. Then back to the train station to pick up the car and drive to Amesbury for the night…… Tomorrow is Stonehenge and Warwick Castle. Firsts today:

· Jess saw her first Catholic Mass while at Westminster Cathedral
· Jess’ first double decker bus ride

Day 2 - Brugge

Day 2 was just as fun as day 1.....

We drove up to Brugge and walked around the city. In the pictures, you will see how narrow the streets in the town were. Everyone was either on foot or on a bike.....or if you weren't careful, some one would show you their bike up close and personal....if you know what I mean....(they would run into you if you didn't watch out - for those of you who didn't get it).

Anyway, we climbed to the top of the tower you see in the pictures, ALL 366 steps! We got a couple good shots of the town. Then we took a boat tour of the city. There is a water canal all around the city....that was pretty cool! Of course, we got some Belgium chocolate, which Jessica has already started in on....and we found a really small door.....(the last picture). All in all, it was a fun day. Hope you enjoy the pictures. Oh yeah. We may not have the Internet for the next few days, so we will post more pictures next chance we get. Tomorrow, we are off to London....

Hey everyone......Here are some pictures of our first day in Belgium. We took a drive to the town of Bastogne where the Battle of the Buldge was fought by the 101st Airborne Rangers. There is a memorial dedicated to the U.S. soldiers that fought and won that part of the war. We went through a museum that talked about this battle being the most critical part of the war. It was really cool!

We found a little cafe to eat lunch at and they had to find the only staff memeber that spoke english to help us.....cuz we don't speak no french! :) It was great! Enjoy!

On our way....

Well, it's been a bit since we updated the site, but things just haven't slowed down enough....

Anyway, Jess and I are off to Belgium and England for the next two weeks. As I type, we are in the Philiadelphia airport waiting for the plane to Brussels. There is a crying baby that will be getting on the flight with us....YEAH!!!! We will try to update the site as often as we can with pictures and things...

STAY TUNED!!!!

The Hospital Blog

Well....the doctor came back with the pictures from the camera pill. And the results are.........


Wait for it.......



Nothing new. Yep. They did not see me bleeding anywhere.

The camera took over 5,000 shots and not one of them showed that I had any internal bleeding at all. The doctor feels that my bleeding came because I took too much Alieve, which caused portions of my intestines to erode and then formed a small 2 to 5 mm opening on an artery, causing the bleeding. They have been giving me Portonix 2 times a day, which coat the lining and help it to heal.

So I may have just healed myself. They gave us 3 options.

1) Be discharged from the hospital and hope that I don't start bleeding again. If I do, come back in and start over again.

2) Go to San Francisco to UC Davis where they have the technology to scope all of my intestines. However, there is no guarantee that they will see anything because I am not actively bleeding.

3) Have exploratory surgery to see if they can find anything. Again, no guarantee that they will find anything.

We choose door #1. However, we will be staying in Reno until Sunday, just in case I start up again. That way, we will be right here near the hospital and won't have to be life flighted again. If all goes well, I won't bleed and it will take me a couple week to gain all my strength back. Right now they say I am about 2 pints too low for "normal" levels, but not a stage where I would need another transfusion.

Well....that's it. Kind of anti-climatic but......

Anyway, with us in Reno, if you want to call, call on Jess' or my cell phone. We will be celebrating Kyra's birthday all weekend!!!!

Thanks for all the love and support everyone has show. It's time to trust our faith in the Lord and the Priesthood blessings given. We know everything will be alright.

Still in the Hospital

Just a quick update today. I took the camera pill this morning around 8 am and got all hooked up with the recording device. They are going to burn the pictures to a CD tomorrow and hopfully read them and have more info for us on Thursday.....Nothing until then.

I took a couple shots of the stuff they put on me to record the pictures. The pictures I took aren't that good....I took them with my camera phone. I took a picture of the camera that I swallowed, but forgot to save it....sorry....

The first and third pictures are of all the wires they stuck to my gut and the middle one is of the recording device that picked up the pictures....

More Updates on Adam in Hospial

We finally saw a doctor today…..needless to say it was about the 15th different doctor we have seen through all of this……

Well.....I guess I put up a big enough stink because they are going to do a procedure that we were previously told could not be done in the hospital. I was going to have to be discharged from the hospital and be seen at a clinic and then wait a day (check into a hotel and then go back to the clinic) for them to complete the procedure. I told them that wasn’t an option.

The procedure is that I will swallow a small camera, which is about the size of a large vitamin pill. It takes 2 pictures per second and will travel through my intestines for 8 hours taking the pictures. I have to wear a jacket that will have a recording device to capture the pictures. This is going to start tomorrow morning (2/24/09) at 8 am. At the end of the 8 hours, they will get the jacket and burn the pictures onto a CD. They are hoping someone can look at the pictures on Wednesday (2/25/09) morning. That means we will not have any new updates until then.

I’ll see if I can get a picture of the camera before I sallow it so I can see if I can post it…... Stay tuned………

Adam in the Hospital

Hey everyone.......

Just want to give everyone a quick update. Yes, I am back in the hospital. They still don't know what is wrong. For those of you who don't know the story, here it is.....

On 2/10/09 - I lost a lot of blood through a GI bleed and went to the hospital in Winnemucca.

While there, they performed several scopes from the top and bottom and could not find the source of the bleeding. I also lost approximately 1/2 my blood volume and had to have 5 units transfused. Because they were unable to determine the cause, they life-flighted me to the Reno hospital on 2/13/09.

While in Reno, they performed several more scans (top and bottom) with no success. They also performed two types of nuclear blood tests, which both also came back negative. Things started to stabilize and they released me on Tuesday the 17th. I went back home and continued to recover.

On the 20th, I had the same GI bleed and was sent back to Reno for more tests, and I am still here today (2/22/09). They have performed the same test 3 different times and had another scope, both have come back without showing the source of the bleed. Also, I have been given 2 more units of blood.

That brings us to where we are now......not a pretty picture and getting very frustrated. The only things that have kept us going is the love and prayers from all the family and the Priesthood blessings I have received. We want to thank Jill and Rachael so much for coming at the drop of a hat to come and help with the kids, so Jess could be at the hospital with me. Also, thanks to Jess' mom for coming over to stay with us and show her support. Uncle David and Aunt Tina came and saw me in the hospital this second time, which was awesome. Mom and Dad also drove up and missed Ashley's farewell to come see me. We've had phone calls and letters and flowers from everyone, and want to thank everyone for their love and support. Jess had my laptop brought to me so I can do this blog from the hospital and if you want to skype my laptop, you'll get me.....in all my wonderful hospital glory!

We'll keep you posted on anything new........

Christmas in Winnemcca!!!!

Finally....we got some pictures up of our Christmas in Winnemucca. We managed to get the tree up on Christmas Eve. I say "we", but Jess did it...I will just take some of the credit too....

The slideshow is of the kids having fun on Christmas morning and if you want to watch the video clip you will need to turn off the music player at the right to hear it. We had a great Christmas. We are still getting set up and will get some more pictures of the house up when we can, but this will have some pictures of the outside. Yes, it snowed here too. About 1 1/2 feet over a 2 day period.....holy crap batman!

Anyway....hope everyone else had a good Christmas!

Photos of Adam's work site - the Mine....

Here is a short video of the mine site I am working at. The Mine is a surface mine and I took a few shots of some of the trucks and other equipment. They are NOT small. The last 3 shots are of my truck I drive to and from the site each day.

Yes....I hit a cow on the way home one night. Really....it just ran out in front of me. You wouldn't think that cows are that fast, but man....the black one came out of nowhere. And that stuff on my truck.....it isn't mud......I knocked the "crap" out of the cow!!!!! (literally)....

Enjoy!

Moving from Vegas

Here are a few shots of us moving from Vegas in December. YES.....It does snow in Vegas.....once every 100 years, and it did it on the day we moved! We received about 3 inches, can you believe that. The move went well, even with the snow and we got up to Winnemucca just fine. I don't think the movers liked it too well though.....

This is the back yard.....SNOW!!!!!

And now the front yard...

Here are a few shots of the packing up of the house in Vegas....doesn't Jess look so happy :).