( CNN ) -- Family members of two girls last seen riding bicycles near a lake in Evansdale , Iowa , put on a brave face Monday , saying they are `` bracing for the worst , but hoping for the best . '' The girls -- 8-year-old Elizabeth Collins and 10-year-old Lyric Cook -- were last seen by their grandmother on Friday when the two , who are cousins , left to go on a bike ride , authorities said . `` We just want our girls home , '' Tammy Brousseau , an aunt to both girls told CNN 's `` AC360 . '' `` We 're bracing for the worst , but hoping for the best . '' Sitting beside Brousseau during the interview was Misty Cook-Morrissey , Lyric 's mother . She said she wanted people to know what the girls are like . `` They 're very outgoing . They 're very sweet , talkative , they 're fun . They smile a lot . They 're pretty persistent in the things that they want . They 're great , they 're really great . You know what I mean ? '' she said . K-9s raise alarm while looking for signs of missing Arizona girl , 6 . A massive volunteer search over the weekend failed to locate the girls , and authorities have suspended the volunteer effort . `` Are we going to get answers ? I 'm not sure , '' Lyric 's father , Daniel Morrissey , told HLN 's Jane Velez-Mitchell . `` It 's just baffling to try to figure out the pieces to the puzzle . Looking at it , it does n't make any sense . '' `` It 's just been a nightmare , '' he said . `` It 's been a challenge to hold everything together and continue to just keep believing and praying and trusting God that he 's got this . '' Brousseau , the aunt , also spoke to HLN 's Velez-Mitchell , saying she believes her nieces must have been taken by a stranger . `` It 's as though they disappeared into thin air in broad daylight , '' she said . Authorities began dragging Meyers Lake over the weekend for a sign of the girls . Their bicycles were located hours after they were reported missing near that lake . The search remains a missing persons case . `` We really have nothing new that I can tell you , other than the fact the search is continuing , '' Rick Abben , chief deputy for the Black Hawk County Sheriff 's Office , told reporters Monday . `` ... We 're still looking for both of them . There 's no new evidence or anything that 's been found . '' Nearly 1,000 volunteers helped in the search Saturday , and nearly 900 on Sunday , he said . Calls are coming in to a tip line , he said , and each bit of information is being checked out . Police ask that anyone who may have seen the girls on Friday contact authorities . Abben said the volunteer effort was suspended because authorities did not feel there was a benefit in having more people search . However , he said , `` we can always call those folks back out . '' Authorities : Tennessee girls 'within inches ' of kidnapper who turned gun on himself . Agents from the FBI and the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation joined the search on Saturday , authorities said . Abben told reporters Monday there was no indication the girls were outside Evansdale , a town of about 4,700 located about 12 miles southeast of Cedar Falls . Nor was there any indication of foul play , he said . `` It 's like they vanished , '' he told CNN affiliate KWWL . `` There 's just nothing . '' CNN 's Leslie Tripp contributed to this report .
NEW : ` ` Looking at it , it does n't make any sense , '' says the father of one of the missing girls . 'It's just a bunch of numbers and letters that don'thing ` It 's as though they disappeared into thin air in broad daylight , '' says their aunt . Elizabeth Collins , 8 , and Lyric Cook , 10 , have been missing since Friday . More than 1,000 people joined a massive volunteer search effort over the weekend .