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A trip with family is always bound to be a trip with a ton of memories! We made the cross-country trek to celebrate the marriage of my cousin, Rosser, and his wife, Kayla. They were to be married at Lake Tahoe (Nevada side) at a beautiful resort named Zephyr Cove.

The rehearsal dinner was a beautiful affair, during which we were able to share a celebration of my uncle’s birthday with the bride and groom. Afterward–get this–my mom talked me into going into the casino on the Nevada-side of the lake. We oh so gracefully lost $200 in an hour while learning to play Roulette and Black Jack!

Before we made it to their wedding, we had the pleasure of exploring South Lake Tahoe and all the shops and adventures it had to offer. We started our morning off at a sweet little café named Creative Crepes…they had any type of crepe you could imagine, regardless of the meal! I enjoyed a “Dog Pile,” which consisted of chocolate, peanut butter, and banana. My dog pile was to die for…betcha never thought you would hear that sentence spoken out loud!

Next we adventured up to the top of the mountain on our gondola ride. We made it to the top at a final altitude of 9,600 feet above sea level, which is the highest I have ever been! At the top of the mountain, it was “Heavenly,” which was the name of the attraction at the top—complete with zip lines, ropes courses, rock climbing, hiking, and a lodge for hot cocoa (considering it drops three degrees for every thousand feet in elevation…I now know this thanks to my Marine!). The state line ran up the mountain and Caleb and I pulled a Landon and Jamie (cue: A Walk to Remember soundtrack) and were in two places at once!

We decided to zip line down the mountain, which was one of the most daring things I have ever done. I am so afraid of heights. **Side story: Caleb and I went hiking for our first anniversary (my idea, not his) and I ended up having a borderline panic attack when I had to take a step over a six-inch gap in the rocks. Granted, I could see the tops of the trees in this crack in the trees. But yea, no, I don’t do the heights thing.** So #win for me for zip lining from 9,600 feet off the top of a mountain.

After we made our way back down to 6,000 feet and 65 degrees, we began to get ready for the marriage celebration! It was a blustery day, but that didn’t keep our spirits down. We celebrated the love and marriage of Rosser and Kayla lakeside at sunset! They exchanged the vows they wrote for one another, we shot some beautiful photographs, and then we danced the night away!

Lastly, we were able to see my other cousin, RJ, play in his 8th grade football game before we headed home. He is seriously a jack-of-all-trades. He has swam, played baseball, soccer, and now football. Among the positions that he has played are cornerback, tight end, kicker, punt returner…I could be making that up, but I think that’s legit.

Our trip home was relatively uneventful until the very last flight from Charlotte to Jacksonville. I am not exaggerating when I say I thought Caleb and I were experiencing our last moments together. The turbulence was so rough at one point that the lady across the aisle pulled out her rosary beads and started praying. Thankfully we had no time between flights (in fact, they had already pulled the jet bridge away from the plane) to eat, so we couldn’t throw up our lunch. J Alas, we made it home safely and I passed out to recover from the time difference.