Our last two weekends straight have been spent in the company of family and friends in the greater Provo area.

The first weekend was for General Conference and the second was to celebrate the birth of Ashley's first cousin on her Mommie's side of the family - Sienna St. Felix.

Taking things in chronological order, I have yet to figure out how to pay attention to General Conference while not being at a church or inside the Conference Center. As if sitting on a soft couch was bad enough, now there is this adorable child to play with. In fact, we have a great home movie of her during the opening session on Saturday.

Due to some serious health issues with Amber's parents we weren't able to stay at their home as we normally do on our trips south. But, Amber's very pregnant sister Stacy graciously invited us to their home in Springville - just south of Provo.

Although we missed Ken and Joyce, it was fantastic staying with Stacy and Serge.

We also used that weekend to see our friends who have departed Logan for the bigger cities.

On Friday, in an attempt to surprise Amber for her birthday - the day before - I arranged to meet our friends the Lewis' at a pizza joint (Gapeddo's: very good) in Salt Lake. When I made the plans I forgot to take General Conference/Mission Reunions/Highway construction into account when figuring driving time. Rather than the 90 minutes it normally takes to get from Logan to SLC, we crawled down the interstate arriving at our destination after 3 hours in the car. Amazingly, the Lewis' were still at the restaurant and they didn't even hate us for being so late.

Saturday conference was spent at our friends the Billmans. All enjoyed the company of friends and the moments of talks that we heard. Ashley made sure to provide the entertainment. Now we just need to work on her timing.

Sunday was spent with family. For the morning session we stayed with Stacy and Serge. We joined up with the Perego's who came down from Taylorsville to the Andersen's in Orem. We ate lunch with the bunch and then slep, I mean, watched the last session of conference.

Following conference we headed up Provo Canyon for a gathering of cousins stemming from my mom's side of the family. That was fun, considering I don't meet up with that group all that often.

Nauvoo was the destination for today's memory making. The plan was to have everyone meet at the Nauview House around 9:30 am and go from there. Amber and I took advantage of the laundry facilities at the house to get one last load washed before heading back to Utah the following morning.

Each family gradually left for Nauvoo through out the morning. Although Montrose is right across the river from Nauvoo the closest bridge was a 30 minute drive up or down stream. With the north route through Ft. Madison, Iowa requiring a toll to cross that bridge the only true option was to travel south and cross at Keokuk.

We arrived at the Nauvoo Visitors' Center just before noon while the other families were finishing up a movie about the life of the prophet Joseph Smith. Following the movie everyone gathered for a carriage ride through the northern section of Nauvoo. The ride takes you past the well where King Follet died and loops around to a place called Inspiration Point where the river cuts across the northern border of the city.

For lunch we all grabbed some barbecue sandwiches from a local grocer and picnicked at the Nauvoo State Park. Amber and I ate quickly as we tried to make a 2pm session at the temple. By the time we drove up to the Joseph Smith Academy (across the street from the temple) to change clothes and then over to a public parking lot and then walked the half block to the temple doors I was dripping with sweat and a little frustrated that it was 2:05 when we walked in. Needless to say we missed the session but were still able to enjoy the day.

We rejoined the rest of the group at the Family Learning Center, which is an outdoor activity center that teaches games and entertainment from the 1840s. The golden discovery was finding the new indoor learning facility equipped with two large air conditioners.

After learning about candle and barrel making we drove up to the temple to get a few pictures before heading back across to the Iowa side of the river.

The day was capped by Ugo blessing the Perego's newest addition: Sarah Anita Perego. In the living room of the Nauview House, wrapped in the scenic views of the river and historic Nauvoo, Ugo pronounced a beautiful blessing upon his first daughter.

Following the blessing dessert was had and good-byes were said before heading back to the cabin to pack.

Amber and I awoke to the sound of the Andersen's van pulling in front of our Lakeview cabin. By the time I made it outside with Ashley, my sister Julia and her husband Dale were already out in the rowboat with their daughter Emma. Julia was teaching Emma how to fish while Dale rowed the boat around the lake.

My brother Geoff was taking Ben, another one of the Andersen's, around in the paddle boat and Brent was giving a fishing lesson to Jacob. After showing him how to cast Brent began to give the lad some space only to hear him shout with glee, "I got one! I got one!" Jacob caught a fish on his first cast.

We were eventually joined by all the other cousins, but not before I headed back to the Nauview House so that Geoff could send an important email. My parents were still there and it was nice to enjoy a few quiet moments with them in their house. Of course, during which time each of us were on our respective laptops typing away at something or other.

When we got back out to Lakeview the activity was swarming all around the lake. More fishing and boating were being enjoyed as well as us older folks teaching the youngins the correct way to play the tetherball that was on site. Our heated battles of wrapping that roped ball around a pole brought back many fond memories of recess time on the playground.

The evening activity was a pontoon boat ride on the Mississippi River. Getting out on the water and gliding slowly past Nauvoo was truly relaxing. When focused on the banks of the old city I couldn't help but think of out it was back in the time when the saints settled the area. And as we crept by peninsula where the end of Parley Street jutted out into the river my mind went to their departure of their beloved city.

The night rounded out with the showing of the last four families Year in Review presentations. We didn't exactly prepare anything, so we showed some video footage from the tape left in our camera. Essentially we show cased the progress on our house.

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.