Last week we packed into our Hyundai in the wee hours of the morning to head on down to Manti. It's a three hour drive from where we live.

One of Amber's cousins, Matt, was getting married and figured it would be fun to gather with some of the extended family.

All I can say about Manti is wow. I mean, I heard it was small but I had no idea! I thought Morton, IL (the town where I went to high school) was small, but I believe Manti is probably about half the size of that. I do admit that it is a beautiful place.

The temple looks a like a white version of the one in Logan. And the interior is still the old style, which I like. The Logan temple was renivated a couple decades ago and lost all of it's old time look. It looks old and pretty on the outside and 70s or 80s pretty on the inside.

After pictures we drove back to Provo where there was a wedding luncheon at Magleby's. Nice place. I discovered that prime rib is a fancy way of saying sliced roast beef. Still good, though.

Keeping Ashley entertained while at the restaurant was a feet. Amber handled her quite well through the meal. She has a great talent of subduing our little one. Then during the post food discussions I escaped with my daughter out to the sidewalk. We toured the shopping center for a few minutes while Ashley settled down and then returned to see everyon leaving.

We made a quick stop by the Bagby homestead on our way home so that we could change into more comfortable traveling clothes. Geoff came over, it's nice having family in the area.

Ashley was very vocal about her negative feelings toward her car seat during about 2/3 of the trip. This only made us that much more excited for the 20-hour drive that awaits us next week during our trip to the McAllister Family Reunion in Illinois.

The morning of the fourth and final day of the reunion opened with the hysteria of packing in preparation for an eleven o'clock departure. The main objective for the morning was to get out of the hotel and down to the Olympic Park for a ski jump show, set to begin at high noon.

Your eyes did not deceive you, we went to a freestyle ski jump show in the middle of July. It turns out that in addition to having world class ski hills and bobsled tracks the Olympic Park in Park City also has a set of jumps that all point toward a pool. The family joined a few hundred other spectators as we marveled at the high flying acrobatics of the skiers as they vaulted off the ramps and came splashing down.

After the show a few of us (me, Jen, Melissa, and Lara) all went over to the zip line that flew above the huge ski jumps. The highlight of the ride could have easily been waiting at the top of the hill in anticipation for your turn, while watching everybody else in front of you go.

As they strap you into your harness the workers ask you to lean up against a door. Once you're secure the door falls open, allowing you to plummet down the side of the mountain while hanging from a cable.

With our time at the Olympic Park coming to an end the rest of the group journeyed back to Orem while I headed to Salt Lake. I spent the Saturday afternoon helping my sister's husband, Ugo, with some home improvement projects. Our main task was taking some carpet he had ripped out of his upstairs and rolled it out in a room in his basement.

Once the carpet was laid perfectly I rain across town to Rice-Eccles Stadium to catch one of the craziest upsets I've seen to date. Last place RSL beat first place DC United on two goals in the last five minutes of play.

Following the game I rejoined Amber and Ashley down at the Bagbys. The next morning we departed for Logan and arrived just in time to get changed and walk into church.

The third day of the reunion was scheduled our annual try at golf. I first realized I liked playing a yearly round of nine holes during last year's reunion in St. George. It occured to me there that the level of enjoyment that I got out of playing golf depended largely on the company that I was with.

Last year's event was highlighted by comedy act of the Brothers Bagby, who exhibited humor I will not utter here.

The drawback to playing golf this year seemed to be the fact that golfing in Park City must be much more popular than in St. George because all the courses were full. Instead we spent another relaxing day at the hotel pool.

Once our individual levels of cholrine consumption hit their peeks it was off to the Outlet Mall that makes Park City famous. As a typical member of the male species I eagerly anticipate mall shopping like a root canal. Ironically, I was the one who came away with a clothing purchase - a pair of running shoes from the adidas store.

As it was our day to take care of food - which we prepared an amazing breakfast assortment of waffles, eggs and bacon - we hustled back from shopping to put together a delightful dinner of chicken parmesan. It's a meal I've prepared before, but never for 10 people. I know have a much greater appreciation for my mom who cooked for a family of 8 every night. Probably why I never heard of chicken parmesan until after I left home.

How could I forget the game night after celebrating Ken's birthday? Much discussion and deliberation went into deciding exactly which game would be played amongst the family members. It was decided that we would entertain one another in a few rounds of Guesstures.

Guesstures is a game where you play cherades to four different topics in a certain amount of time. It's quite entertaining to watch the creative bones expose themselves in people who don't normally express a creative side.

There were two teams Team Jen and Team Serge. I was on Team Jen, and thus we lost. I say that because it was my turn when the lead (which we held the entire game up to that point) was lost. To add injury to insult, on that last turn I accidently broke the game piece that the whole game revolves around. Sorry Jen.

That about covers the games, I believe. Did I miss anything?

Seeing as this reunion will be forever remembered for our interactions with the local Fire Marshall, I have decided to change my title.

Day 2 of our fantastic family voyage consisted of a lazy morning where most of the reunion goers ended up at the pool at one point or another. The pool, like the local parking, was shared by a few of the surrounding hotels. It got crowded quickly, but offered all the necessities of a pool area. The most important aspect was a place to lay out. I took advantage of this area and my chest toasted quite well. The only linger affects of the sunburn is that I am in the itching stages now.

Following the pool we all showered and some of us took a stroll up Main Street. Our destination was the Egyptian Theater where we purchased tickets for the show that evening entitled Urinetown. Serge gave a great review in the comments of the "Fire in Park City" post.

Thanks to the Brothers Bagby, who stayed at the hotel while Ashley slept, both Amber and I were able to enjoy the evening on the town with the rest of the family.

While walking back from the play Serge and I challenged each other hitting the overhanging shop signs along the side walk. The highlight of that sequence was when Serge thought he'd out smarted me by daring me to hit a particularly high street sign attached to the corner of a building. Little did he know that my Spidie senses propelled me up the wall of the structure allowing me to victoriously slap the sign in triumph.

The evening was capped off with a birthday celebration for Ken, as he turned 60 this month. Seeing as jokes about age are too easy to throw at this point, I'll leave it be.

In addition to Scott's blog regarding the lack of the fire, there was a little additional information that needed to be added. For clarification, we all didn't sleep in soundly the next morning...just everyone excluding Ashley and I...however, we did get the opportunity the next morning to hang out and play...unlike everyone else who slept in!

Two nights later, we were cooking dinner at 10 p.m. (yes you read right) and the fire alarm went off again...this time we just walked around and decided if there really was a fire that we had lived a good enough life and could burn too...We are still alive to write this blog and so you could tell there was no fire.

When discussing the details of traveling from Logan to Park City with Amber it occured to me that our schedule was not very tight. Or, in other words, we had some time to kill. It was during this train of thought that I remembered that I had never been to "This is the Place" monument down in Salt Lake. And Amber, though she is a native of Utah only vaguely remembers visiting the site.

The monument marks the spot where the leader of the settlers of Utah, Brigham Young, stopped his wagon, surveyed the valley that laid out before him and declared "this is the right place." For God had shown Brigham the destination for the Latter-day Saints, who settled Utah, in a vision. That valley was eventually called the Salt Lake Valley due to the large salty body of water that sat in the middle of it.

Our plan was to have a picnic lunch at the monument on our way to Park City. Armed with Subway sandwiches we arrived at a large field on hill with a tall granite tower at one end. The sun was blazing, so lunch was had quickly after seeking refuge in a gift shop so that Ashley could get her lunch in comfort.

We made our way through a windy canyon that separates Park City from Salt Lake City and found our accomidations at the center of town. Home was at the Park Station Condo Hotel, as mentioned above, and our condo was equipped with 5 bedrooms.

To get an idea, imagine two large hotel suites, each with a living room, full kitchen and two bedrooms. Knock out the wall between them and use the space between the walls to squeeze in a bunkbed. To be honest, it worked.

Shortly after arriving I returned to Salt Lake to cover an RSL game. I was delighted that Serge (Stacy's husband) decided to come along for the game. There were some great goals - although Salt Lake let their lead slip away as they got scored on in stoppage time to end up in a 3-3 tie.

Serge and I returned back to Park Station and were climbing into bed just in time to hear the fire alarms go off in the building. He and I went to investigate what was going on and found the the building had all evacuated - with the exception of our party.

We ran back in to get everyone when the alarms stopped. With everyone now awake we milled around in hallway for a few minutes before the alarms went off again.

This time Amber rushed back into our room to grab Ashley (soundly sleeping through the whole thing) and we all made our way out of the building in a rush. Ashley woke up once she felt the cool night air on her face.

If you haven't noticed, I haven't mentioned anything about a fire. That's because there wasn't one. The Fire Marshal came out to investigate and found nothing. We all returned to our beds and slept fairly deep into the next morning.