Thanksgiving 2014 in Sundance!

I can't believe Thanksgiving is over already!! After looking forward to it since June, our amazing holiday week FLEW by. If it wasn't for this recap I might forget all of what we did in the whirlwind of a week!

Thanks to Ellen for bieng the family photographer and sending these pics. :) Get ready for a lot of pictures!

Last Monday my parents flew in for our Thanksgiving mountain escape in Sundance! On the day they came I was uspe sick, so they went directly up to the cabin to get everything ready for the group and week ahead.

On Tuesday morning I was feeling a lot better - they came back to Provo to see us and take my yoga class. :) I've been teaching for 3+ years but this was the first time they'd been able to come! Matt come, too. :) So good. Matt and I showed them around the impressive Provo Rec where I teach, showed them our apartment, and eventually we all made it back up to Sundance! I was sooo happy to finally get there!

Sundance!

The cabin was cute and quirky :)

Uncle John & Aunt Linda came in that night too, and we kicked off the week with dinner for the 6 of us at Sundance Lodge - which was amazing as always :) It was so good to see them!

On Wednesday we all woke up at the cabin and hung out for the morning. Then Mom and Linda got our Thanksgiving feast #1 started, while Matt and I drove up to SLC to get ELLEN from the airport! :D

It was all amazingly smooth for the day before Thanksgiving, and on the way back we even took the scenic route through Park City :)

By the time we got back to the Sundance house Mom and Linda were in high gear in the kitchen getting everyhting ready! We hung out and chatted and cought up for a while, and helped cook and eat! :) It was so warm and happy!

Lots of smiling and laughing :)

^ Matt "stepping into a portal to another dimension" (references to our conversations throughout… enjoy!!)

Matt + my hair. :)

A lack of space in the kitchen inspired someone to direct Matt to take the cranberry sauce out into the snow to set... Genius!

Dad's job: keep Barkley out of the kitchen and chat with Uncle John!

Ellen's caption: Matt and Laura figuring out bar tools ;)

Matt's version: Look, I made a fountain!

I WISH we had a picture of our adorable 10lb turkey! …we will never forget its 'twins' and Mom pulling out the guts after it had been cooking for 45 minutes. NICE SAVE! Haha! ("by the wrath of Khan!!")

After lots of eating and cooking and talking and laughing, it was time for the first of our two Thanksgiving meals! :) I LOVE Matt and Dad's excpressions below!

^ This was imediately before the wine bottle splash and Mom's heroic save!

Me taking my pie distribution job very seriously… Ha!

 

After eating as much as possible, it was time to crash and relax...

Let's get a closer look at that serious nap going on:

The next morning was Thanksgiving! We woke up slow…

Thanksgiving sunrise

… and then made our way to the resort for the big Thanksgiving Day Buffet!

This might actually be the only group picture we have from the week - and we can't see Dad!

Thanksgiving Day Buffet at Sundance

Everything in the huge buffet-in-a-library was perfect

Everything was delicious - especially my favorite ginger-citrus cookies!

After eating, a few of us somehow managed to walk back to the house (instead of driving)… and Ell got a Thanskgiving pic with wild turkeys. :)

Then was more sleeping/relaxing...

 Before Matt led Ellen and me on a snow hike!

The whole week was pretty warm (45ish degrees!?) and this hike was no exception.. we were almost hot! We hiked from Sundance to Stewart Falls and it was one of our highlights of the week! So amazing!

 

Two pics of Matt and me with Mt. Timp behind us -

Fearless leader Barkley in front of the frozen Stewart Falls :)

 Sis pic!!

 Matt taking it in

See adorable Ellen in the bottom right? :)

After the hike all 7 of us watched White Christmas...

And then rounded out the night with Scrabble! Ellen had some interesting word choices, and Mom was there too even though she didn't make it into the picture! Dad was sad that untaint was not a word... :) 

 Throughout the weekend there was a lot of puzzle putting-together...

Dad and Matt hard at work

 Lots of constant eating… Ellen's caption for this one is #whitepeople :)

 …turkeys outside our window...

…fire-building (mostly by Uncle John our master fire-builder)

and hangin out

Friday was a quiet, low-key day. In the evening all the girls took a trip down to Provo for shopping at the Riverwoods outdoor mall which was totally lit up with fire pits and Christmas lights, and then a few of us went to the resort for a free screening of the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - which was the insporation for the resort!

While there we ran into Romeo, the world's most perfect golden retriever. :D

And his friend Essie. :( Later we saw PetLink, who would have rather been in the Owl Bar! :)

On Saturday morning we said goodbye to Uncle John and Aunt Linda. :(  Not long after they headed to the airport, we headed in the same direction to spend the day in SLC!! First stop was Costo to buy an iPhone (a necessity) and then it was on to more shopping in SL!

At one point we lost Dad… but found him in Brooks Brothers watching the USC game! They smashed the Irish and we watched the whole thing on live updates as we shopped.

Several purchases later it was time for pictures by the City Creek Christmas trees :)

Family pic, just missing Sarah!

Funny face family pic!

And then… Temple Square to see the Christmas Lights :D

Seeing the lights is by FAR one of my favorite Christmas traditions. I was SO glad my family could join us this year! It only could have been better if there was snow. :)

^Looking up into the trees :)

 So, so so beautiful!

Nothin like it. :) 

The lights were followed by dinner at La Jolla Groves. :) Perfect end to a great week!

The next morning we said goodbye to Ellen when she headed back to LA D: and then Mom, Dad, Matt and I had a very quiet Sunday at the house.

Barkley snuggling with his boar… the one he was scared of and growled at the first day!

That evening Mom helped us pack up all the remaining food - which was a lot - for Matt and me to take home. It was a tough job but someone had to take the leftovers. ;)

This was only part of it...

And then Mom, Dad, Matt and I went back to the resort one last time for dessert. While there we finally saw Jo, the resident golden retriever who we had heard about all week from Mom. :)

Then Matt and I had to drive back home. :( I was SO sad to be leaving! I was somewhat in shock on the drive back… so sad the long-anticipated week was over already! It flew by incredibly fast! But even though it was over in a flash, I was SO SO SO glad my family came out to spend Thanksgiving  with us in Utah!! Something we talked about during the week is how different things will be for my sisters and me this time next year. 2015 will hold lots of new adventures for all of us and by Thanksgiving next year things will be pretty different!

A huge thank you to Mom and Dad for making the whole thing happen. :) Next year maybe we can catch Sarah for a few days too, if she decides to stop adventuring and come see us. ;)  It was a great, much-needed week. Hope you had fun reading about it!