When last we left our fearless group. We were visiting relatives of Erika in Virginia. After a way too long day visiting the Washington Zoo, we got ready for Heather’s big graduation party (Heather is Erika’s cousin).

I was pleasantly surprised to see that Erika brought along a slip-n-slide for the kids to play on. I’ll tell you about kids these days. They had no clue what a slip-n-slide was, nor what one could do with it. You can see here, Erika getting Mira ready for a run down.

Slip n slide!

Afterwards the two girls posed in the shade, soaked and just thoroughly pleased with themselves. You’ve gotta love a hot day in the sun with a slip-n-slide and all your family!

Awww!

Of course this was a graduation party and there were actually three girls who we were celebrating that day: Ashley, Heather and Brittany. I was appointed photographer for the day and ran around snapping a couple of hundred photos. I won’t include them all, but here’s a very nice shot of the three girls.

Ashley, Heather and Brittany

Then Mira got down to business. That is the business of eating summer food and drinking soda. When I say summer food, yes I am talking about chocolate cake. Is there anything that chocolate cake doesn’t go with? Heat, cold, sun, rain, snow, whatever, it’s always better with chocolate cake. I love how when you get so wet in the summer that no matter of any time out of the water can dry your hair. That’s awesome.

Food!

Heather wanted to get another nice shot with Mira. After a day of sprinklers, water, sun, sugar, chocolate cake, soda and who knows what else, I was surprised that Mira was feeling a little tired and shy!

So shy!

And then we have our problem baby. Yelling and screaming as usual. Here’s Mark and I just hanging with Luna!

Luna Buna!

Shortly after that, Erika got Luna in her jammies and we rushed her off to bed. The after party was happening at the local pool and Mira had a date with her green raft that we didn’t want to miss.

Ready for bed?

Once she got acclimated to the water, we couldn’t drag her out. We threw her and towed her and generally had a great time in the water with all the teenagers celebrating the end of the year.

Swimming!

By the time things started to wind down, we found Mira soaking wet and destroying this bag of chips in the corner. See her hair?!? I told you it’s impossible to dry ones hair after a certain amount of time in the water!

Chips!

Erika got together with Mark for a quick shot to end the night. This daddy and daughter combo had a really fun time and I’m glad this looked so good. It’s a keeper in my book.

Daughter and Daddy!

The next morning, everyone was on the road pretty early and we quickly set back on our 8+ hour trip back to beautiful Cleveland.

The summer is in full swing now and I’ve got tons of stories and pictures to share. Check back in soon!