my cousin's wedding

After we were done with our two days at Valley Fair, the time came for the main event, for what we had planned our vacation around, my cousin Laura's wedding on July 21. Laura and I spent a lot of time together when we were young, especially at my Gramma's house where we made forts and played princesses, walked to Canyon Lake, or played at Storybook Island.

We were all up late the previous night since we stayed at Valley Fair until it closed at 10pm and then ate out at Culvers afterward. We didn't get to bed until midnight! We slept in at my cousin Megan's as much as we could the following morning. 

The kids watched some TV while Terry and I prepared things.

Lazy punks 😜

We had to drive to Rochester so we left three hours early and arrived late. The traffic was terrible and there was some construction that held us up. The only good thing about it was that I got to greet and hug Laura right before she went down the aisle. Ha! I was so embarrassed. 

After the wedding we got settled in our Airbnb and then went to the reception. My aunt Nancy had saved us all a spot with them. 

My aunt Nancy, Jo, who was my uncle Jeff's wife, and Megan, whose house we stayed at. 

The DJ had us play with dollar game and we had Ezra hold up the money. He was supposed to get everyone drinks for the night. 😂 Nope.

Megan had to leave to go do something with her boyfriend so we went outside to say goodbye. 

Terry said something silly to make us laugh. I like this picture.  

Nathan and Ana had to leave shortly after to put their cranky kids to bed in the hotel they were staying at with her family who had come up to visit.  

Nathan saying goodbye to Nancy and Jo.

Laura and her husband were making their rounds saying hello to their guests and I grabbed her for a couple pictures. Evie said she liked her dress a lot.

I like this one.

Terry was sayings something about monkeys, I think, to make us be silly. Ha ha.

Listening to the toasts. 

A sweet moment during the toasts.

My cousin Heather and Laura's older sister was waiting her turn to give her toast.

Nancy and Jo were comparing the rubber band bracelets Evie had made them both.

From there Laura and Brandon went outside to take some sunset pictures on the golf course. It was an absolutely perfect evening. 

I was a creeper photographer. 😂

Zoom

So pretty.

 They walked to the other side of the building for some more pictures next to the swamp. Haha, she said she had bugs crawling in her dress.

Out for a lovely stroll.

Dip and kiss!

They came inside and it was almost time for us to go. We went to say goodbye and Evie gave her a rubber band bracelet.

It was so sweet that she wore it.

 They were getting ready for the dancing when Laura and her niece Siri did some spinning. So cute.

Their first dance as a married couple.

 The father daughter dance was next and we stepped out and had Jo take a family picture for us. 

We needed a picture since we were all dressed up!

Beautiful sunset on our way back to our place.

Noah continued the dancing at our airbnb. 😜😏

Putting the punks to bed behind that curtain. 

The following morning we found Ezra sleeping with his head on the couch. Ha!

Evie left this sweet note for our host.

We left the following morning, Sunday July 22, and our air conditioner was on the fritz. It had started  to work erratically the previous day on our drive to Rochester for the wedding. Terry kept cranking the fan and turning down the temp to try to force it to work because we could hear that it was cooling the air but the vent wasn't opening. We finally stopped just across the SD border and he took a look. The van released a ton of condensation while we were stopped. Ezra was playing in the water! Terry jiggled some stuff around and it seemed to open a vent and allowed the cold air to come out. The compressor seemed so frozen that it was cooling the air without evening having the AC turned on.

We stopped about an hour later in Mitchell and when we went to leave, the van made an alarming sound and some smoke came out of the dash. We immediately turned the van off and Terry went around to look inside. When I turned it on again, Terry saw that it looked like the serpentine belt was getting stuck near the air compressor. Terry got on the phone with AAA to have them help us. Just then someone came up to my window and asked if that was Terry Biers. I didn't recognize them with their sunglasses on but it was Cora and Steve from church! Steve was a car guy and he took a look at the van. He didn't think it was a belt problem but a compressor issue. We got it started a third time and it didn't make a weird sound so we decided just to get home. Steve and Cora followed us the whole way to Rapid to make sure we didn't break down. 

After a few miles we didn't feel so vulnerable anymore and we started listening to an audiobook Terry was doing with this Utah mission trip team. They'd been preparing for a month or two for their Salt Lake City Mormon mission trip that was coming up in only a week. Testimonies are amazing to listen to and it sure passed the time.

We made it home safe and sound and discovered my first dahlia to bloom was huge!

My zinnias were also huge, as big and bountiful as they've ever been. I think it's thanks to all the rain we've had this summer. It's been great.

Our strawberries proliferated incredibly too. I think next year they will take over this entire bed and we won't be able to put a tomato there anymore.

When we left I only had one or two and when I returned there were like nine or ten!

I didn't know I needed to dead head them. I felt bad removing such a big flower!

New and old.