Grand Teton Vacation part 1

After 2500 miles and 43 hours in the car we have returned from our big vacation of the year. We were due for a family reunion on Sean's side of the family and decided to meet somewhere this year instead of all heading to New Mexico where his folks live. We settled on the Yellowstone/Grand Teton area. Back in February I started researching places to stay. We looked at small cabins inside the park and they ran $200+ a night per family. There were four families and that became pretty expensive pretty fast. Plus there were no kitchens so food would have to be eaten out too. I ran across AirBNB which is a site where people rent out their homes to travelers. I found several beautiful, huge cabins in the Yellowstone area for around $2000 a night. Still too much, obviously. So my search got broadened. I ended up in Idaho on the other side of the Grand Tetons and found a lovely cabin in our price range (it was $450 a night). It slept 16 people and was a massive 4500 square foot house. It was a good hour and a half from the park but decided, for the price, that would be fine.

It turned out to be a lovely, well kept house. All 14 of us were able to spread out, each getting our own bedroom and bathroom and were able to cook all of our food. Best of all, this was the view out the back deck.

It was so nice seeing everyone! We had some great laughs and all the cousins got to play together. And play they did! My children are still exhausted from the sheer amount of running and laughing they did in those four days together. They all shared a bedroom and I'm not sure they got to sleep before midnight each night. So much giggling. They really had fun.

Probably the nicest thing about getting a house was the ability to cook each meal. We had some lovely meals together. Each family was in charge of cooking one night, so no one person was doing all the cooking. It was also nice to be able to pack a lunch when we went into the park.

Rich and Jeremy hauled their bikes with them so they could rack up some miles in the mountains.

Here is the epic cabin we all stayed in. What a fun and memorable family reunion!