How to Plan a Large Family Reunion to Star Valley Ranch

7/23/2022

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In 2020, our family started the tradition of having a family reunion every 2 years. It’s a great excuse for us to spend some time together, and a great way for all the grandkids to get to know their cousins that they don’t get to see very often.

If you’ve ever tried to plan an outing for a large group of people, you know how difficult, time consuming, and expensive it can be. I hope that by sharing our experiences and ideas, you can mitigate some of that on your end, and enjoy some time together as a family up in Star Valley Ranch, Wyoming!

Travel Plans

Our first family reunion was at Disneyland, right before everything shut down. This year, we got a cabin in Star Valley Ranch, Wyoming, and spent the week up there. I spent a lot of time looking at cabin rentals in the area, and finally decided on this one. It was big enough to fit all of us, had great reviews, and wasn’t too far away from the National Parks. A huge upside for us was also the kitchen. There’s enough room for everyone to gather together and eat, and having 2 stoves and ovens was really helpful for those big meals. There were also two refrigerators and a large pantry, so there was plenty of space to hold the food everyone brought.

Since we all drove up there, it was also really nice that they had a driveway large enough to hold all of our vehicles. For some destinations, flying in might make more sense. But even with high gas prices, driving was a lot cheaper for everyone. We also knew we were going to drive up to the National Parks, so we wanted to make sure we had enough vehicle space for everyone. Keep this in mind as you plan your own trips. Since this was a longer drive that most of us split into 2 days, we made sure to make our arrival day a Sunday, and our departure day a Saturday. This way the adults didn’t have to miss so much work.

When we do the vacation rentals, we split up the payment evenly between each family, and I made a spreadsheet to keep track of who paid (along with other information like shirt sizes and meal sign ups, which we’ll talk about later).

A moose we saw from the cabin one day.

Staying Organized

When working with this many people, organization is a must. The spreadsheet is what really helped me stay organized while planning this. It was nice to be able to just look at a glance and see what needed to be done still.

I kept track of:

Cabin payments
Shirt sizes
Meal sign ups
Talent show sign ups
Who had finalized their travel plans

I also made a timeline for myself outlining when I needed certain things to be done by. For example, when the final payment on the cabin was due, or when I would need to have the shirts by. I created this right after booking the cabin and just crossed stuff off as I went. It gave me some peace of mind to know I was on schedule, and I didn’t have to go looking through emails for any of the dates I needed. It was all just readily available for me.

Planning the Meals

Cooking breakfast with grandma

Feeding a large crowd for a week is no easy feat, and it really takes the help of everyone to get it done. This year, I created a sign up sheet for every meal and had people choose the mealtimes they wanted to be responsible for. They would be responsible for bringing the food for their own meals, and making sure it got made on time. To help keep things consistent, we asked everyone to have their meals ready around the same times every day, differing only depending on which meal it was.

This was an incredibly long drive for most of us, so we didn’t stop to purchase perishable items like milk and meats until we were close to the cabin, and we kept them in ice chests for the remainder of the drive. We made this stop in Kemmerer, WY because that’s where my brother lives, but I don’t actually believe that’s on the way to Star Valley Ranch from basically any direction. Thayne is a nearby town you can stop in, though, and we did go there throughout the week to stock up on more fruits and snacks.

The kids loved helping with the cooking. From helping with pancakes at breakfast to frying up hamburgers at dinner to making cake to celebrate Grandpa’s birthday, the kids wanted to be part of it and it was a lot of fun to see them in action.

Family Activities

We wanted to make sure there were enough things to do that nobody would get bored, but we didn’t want to over plan everything. This was a vacation, after all, and it's nice to be able to relax and just hang out and chat, or even take a nap. So we planned a few big activities for everyone to participate in together, and had some other activities everyone could just enjoy throughout the week if they wanted to.

National Parks: Visiting the National Parks is a must. There was a lot of flooding at Yellowstone at this time, so we opted just to go to Teton National Park. It was amazing! A few of us took a hike up to Hidden Falls, while everyone else found a great spot to eat lunch, fish, and play in Jenny Lake. Those of us who did the hike took a boat ride back and learned more about the area from the guide. A few hikers even saw some moose! And on the drive back home there were herds of bison out grazing in the fields. It was really crowded and difficult to find parking in the morning, but the parking lot emptied a lot throughout the day. Teton is a lot closer to Star Valley Ranch than Yellowstone, so unless you really want to see the geysers, I would recommend going to Teton instead if you can only visit one.

Activity books: Since there were going to be some long drives to and from the parks, and probably some downtime at the cabin, we made activity books for all of the kids. It was really easy to do. Just find some free downloadable activity pages online, stick them together in a folder with a pencil and some crayons, and you’re good to go! We personalized them a little for each kid and tried to find activities that were suitable for their age and abilities, and revolved around things they liked. There were some step-by-step drawing tutorials, crossword puzzles, word searches, madlibs, and more. Most of the kids had finished theirs by the time they went home, so in the future I would probably add some more pages so they have something to do on the way home as well.

Spider-Man tie-dying his shirt

Tie-Dying shirts: We do a family shirt for our reunions. They’re fun and a great memory. I like to include the year and the Reynolds name on ours, as well as some indication of where we were or what the “theme” was that year. This year, since it was sort of like a summer camp theme, we decided to tie-dye our shirts. This was a hit! The kids loved it. My brother-in-law loved it. Everybody loved it. My two oldest nieces could hardly contain themselves all day because they wanted to help me rinse out all the shirts and see how they came out. We just used a tie-dye kit like this for ours, and brought extra gloves and rubber bands. There was enough dye for everyone and some people even added more to their shirts after seeing how they came out of the first rinse. For anyone in the Phoenix area, Summer Lovin Designs decaled our shirts for us!

Talent show: On one of our last days there, we had a family talent show. It was so cute and I loved seeing what everyone came up with. Alicia and Adrian sang a duet together, Grandma and Grandpa wrote and performed a musical skit, and almost every grandchild signed up with an act. There was singing, dancing, magic, comedy, art, and a cowboy. Some of the kids even went up twice. At the end of the show, everyone who participated got to choose a prize out of the prize bag (which mostly had chocolate bars in it).

Karaoke: Our family loves to sing, so we set up a little karaoke station one day. The kids loved it and it kept them busy for a few hours. As long as you have access to YouTube, you can set one up for yourself. Just take along a microphone like this one!

Family games: Our family also loves to play games together! The kids even brought some of their own games they had gotten for Christmas or birthdays so they could play with their cousins. The kids loved playing games like Spot It! and Marvel Guess in 10. After the kids went to bed, the adults would play games like Chameleon and Blockbuster.

Arts & Crafts: What would summer camp be without some arts and crafts? We were up there around Father’s Day, so Lindsey brought special frames all the kids could decorate to give as gifts to their dads. Jessica brought supplies for making friendship bracelets, which the girls loved. My mom even made one for me! My mom also brought watercolor kits and paper so everyone could paint some watercolors of the scenery and fun moments from the trip.

Outdoor activities: Other activities we did included hiking some nearby trails, or letting the kids run around and blow tons of bubbles. The little girls also had a fun time making fairy houses in the yard! There was a community center in this neighborhood that had a playground and pool as well, so that was a great place to hangout sometimes.

Final Tips

Planning a big family reunion like this isn’t easy, especially if you try to do it all on your own. Ask for help, ask for people’s thoughts on different ideas, and don’t stress yourself out with planning! Remember this is a vacation, so it should be fun for everyone, including you.

Good luck, and enjoy your stay in Star Valley Ranch!

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