Team Volk: Minnesota with the Volks

Ryan's cousin Justin got married in Minnesota last Saturday so we flew out to join with the rest of the Volk family to celebrate the occasion. For those of you who don't know, Ryan has a huge family (his dad is one of 12 kids) so it's always fun to get together with everyone.

Thursday, July 1
We flew into Minneapolis Thursday afternoon. Cameron is a veteran flyer now, so she did pretty well on the flight, that is until we started our decent into the twin cities. Poor thing, her hears started to bother her and she was so upset she didn't want to suck on anything. I finally got her to start nursing after awhile which helped her ears and calmed her down. It was funny, because I always thought that in a situation like that I would be stressed about bothering the people around me, but when I was in the middle of it all, I could care less about everyone else, I was just worried about my little girl.

Our veteran flyer

Cameron and Daddy on the plane

Me and little toots

What a big girl, sitting in her own seat

Drinking out of a cup...okay not really, she just liked to chew on it!

Friday, July 2

On Friday we went to an amusement park near where we were staying called Valleyfair. We went with a bunch of Ryan's family and had a blast! For some reason there was no one at the park that day, so we didn't really have to wait in any lines. It was great. I think I went on the same roller coaster 3 times, just because I could!

Getting ready for our trip to Valleyfair

That's the roller coaster we went on a bunch of times

The fam

Mr. Cole sportin' his cap

Waiting while the others went on a ride

Ryan and Abby on The Monster

The Bare kiddos, Bryce, Madison and Brook

(Madison and Brook were the flower girls in our wedding)

The crew

Brook holding Cameron while we took turns on the roller coaster.

Brook cracks me up, she's a hoot

Saturday, July 3
Before the wedding on Saturday we took Cameron for a swim in the pool. She loves the water! I think she's going to be a little fishy when she gets bigger.

The wedding and reception were very nice. Cameron was good girl through the whole service. Justin and Renae looked like they were so happy. We're very excited for them. The reception was at a really nice golf course and it was beautiful. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the bride and the groom, but here are several of us! HA

Cameron's little pin up photo

Cameron and me right before the wedding started

Cameron sportin' her headband, so cute!

At the reception, isn't it a nice setting?

Cameron and her daddy

The girls: me, Cameron and Annie

Me and my girl

The Volk family tends to get a little carried away with the whole clicking of the glass tradition at wedding receptions. You know, the one where the bride and groom have to stand up and kiss when the guests start clinking their glasses? At our wedding one of the cousins actually broke a glass clinking so much!

At Justin and Renae's wedding someone came up with a great idea, if a table decided to clink, they had to stand up and sing a song before the bride and groom would kiss. You would think that would deter people from clinking...not the Volks! HA We took it on as a challenge. A couple of the cousins decided to write a rap and Eli preformed it while everyone else laid down the beat (don't I sound hip). It was awesome! Here's the video:

Sunday, July 4

Sunday was our anniversary. Ryan and I have been married for four years now! In some ways it seems like our wedding was just yesterday and in other ways it seems like Ryan and I have been married forever. One thing is for certain, our lives just keep on changing and I love it. Now I'm not only blessed with an amazing husband, but a beautiful daughter too. I truly am a lucky girl.

I love you Ryan!

With everything that was going on, we had to take a rain check on a special anniversary celebration. Instead we spent some more time with the Volk fam. We went to brunch at the golf course in the morning and then Ryan, his dad and a bunch of the rest of the family went to the horse track for the afternoon. Annie, Kathy and I opted to go to the Mall of America with Cole and Cameron instead of going to the track. It was fun to walk around, that mall is huge!

At brunch, it was a little bright and Cameron was super distracted

Cameron in her 4th of July dress

Cole, look at that sweet face

Monday, July 5
Monday morning we made another quick stop at the Mall of America to kill some time before our flight. Cameron did great on the airplane ride home. She literally slept the entire time...no ear problems. Yay!