Thanksgiving at the Whispering Pines Cabin - Part 1

This year we spent Thanksgiving at a cabin up at Sundance. It was quiet, cozy, relaxing and made for some unique memories.  Part of what made it so fun was that we feel such a close connection with Sundance.  My family owned  one of the first cabins up at Sundance when I was a child and I have memories of learning to ski on the slopes of Mandan which was literally right outside our front door!  I was too young to have vivid memories of the Clark Cabin, however in reading my mother's journals, I have been continually surprised at how much time my family spent there and what a huge part of my family's life the cabin was.  

The Collins also owned a cabin and I think I have even more memories of times spent there - their epic winter tubing run, the hot tub, reading the questions for the adults playing Trivial Pursuit, sitting by the fire, playing Sasha dolls with Liz down in the meadow, hiking to Stewart Falls, just to name a few.  Wes and I also spent the first couple of days of our honeymoon at the Collins' cabin - where the window of the master bedroom framed Stewart Falls perfectly.  Sadly, the Collins cabin was completely destroyed in an avalanche many years ago.  

Other Sundance connections:  The summer before my junior year in high school - I played the role of one of the youngest daughters in Fiddler on the Roof on the original outdoor Sundance Summer Theater stage.  My sister Amy also performed on the original outdoor theater stage - a few times!  During my college years, I worked one summer at the Sundance Summer Theater ticket office.  My Uncle Brent managed the resort for many years and following his time there, he managed the catalog.
Needless to say, we love Sundance!

The Whispering Pines cabin.

We arrived and settled in and then decided to go down to the resort for dinner.  We wandered around the gift shop and then had a lovely dinner at the Foundry Grill.  We all kept remarking on how delicious the water was!  The waiter confirmed to us that the water is filtered through Mt. Timpanogos and taken from a spring high up on the mountain.  (I haven't been able to confirm that anywhere but it sure tasted good!)

Then it was back to the cabin to sit by the fire and roast Kip's homemade marshmallows.  They were delicious!

We woke to the view of the Sundance ski runs with the snowmakers madly trying to add snow to the slopes.

The weekend was filled with game-playing - Scattergories, Balderdash, Muggins, Pit, Golf, Chess, Trivial Pursuit, War, Clue, Mancala and Pick-up-Sicks.  Nothing so fun as a good old fashioned game of Pick-up-Sticks!  It reminds me so much of my grandma.

The cabin had a huge dining table that we were all able to fit around.  The table was set and ready for the rest of the family to arrive.

Papa's perfect turkey!  We did have a little mishap with the turkey earlier that morning.  I woke up at 7:00 am to find Papa and Addie in a smoke-filled kitchen - smoke was pouring out of the oven!  Windows and doors were opened and Addie was using a placemat to fan the smoke outside.  Our eyes were burning and we were worried the smoke alarm was going to go off.  We were even more worried that it didn't!  My dad was just following the directions of how to brown the turkey for 10 minutes before beginning the long roasting process.  Once we turned down the temperature - the smoke cleared and all was well.  And the turkey turned out perfectly tender and flavorful!  (I must admit I was a little unnerved the rest of the trip wondering if the smoke alarms worked!)

The rest of the family arrived and played some games before dinner.

One picture with Amy.

One picture with Emily.

The meal was absolutely delicious!

After dinner a few of us decided to go down to the resort and then drove to the cabins to see how much things had changed.  The gate just happened to be open (lucky!) and we were able to drive up to the old Clark cabin.  The outside is still exactly same although the inside has been updated.  If this looks vaguely familiar to my parents' home, it's because it was designed by the same architect -Lee Knell.

 No one was at the cabin so we wandered around and even peeked inside.  So many good times here!

In the afternoon we worked on a service project - making fleece blankets for a Sub-for-Santa family.

We decided to have pie for dinner - which we thought was a brilliant idea!  And we spent Thanksgiving evening sitting by the fire and roasting marshmallows.

Addie discovered a special spot to text her friends....I mean escape the smoke from the fire.

Let the climbing begin!

The next day we hiked to Stewart Falls - pictures will be posted separately.  And spent the afternoon playing at the cabin.

That evening we attended a special showing of Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid at the Redford Screening Theater.  This was part of the Redford Film Series and was complimentary to the public - free popcorn too!  I had never seen the movie and we felt like it was too much of a classic to pass up - especially given the fact that we were staying at Sundance!  We are glad we went since we ran into at least 5 high school friends!

It was a wonderful and memorable Thanksgiving.  And to make it even more special - there were herds of wild turkeys running around that we saw almost every day that we were there.