What a fourth!!!

Today was pretty much the best July 4th EVER!! We all had lunch at Mama's, and after we ate Blair, Matt, Karen, and I all played Wii. We bowled several games after an unsuccessful attempt at tennis (on my part). Then we played Karen's card game, Oh Phooey. Karen won, of course. Then the "real" fun started. While Karen was making pasta salad for our get together tonight, Matt and I played catch with Karen's gloves and softball. He managed to throw the softball at my foot, and amazingly that was the only injury sustained. We had a little trouble playing, because Solomon, Mama's black lab, kept making off with the ball. During all this, Blair had gone into town to buy a really cool-looking soccer ball. When he came back we started kicking the ball around and realized that it is really hard to play soccer in flip-flops and Crocs. Matt was the only one wearing tennis shoes. It took about five minutes for us to realize we all tennis shoes there. After much searching around for socks (sounds like a children's book...or a new edition of Stick Karen) we all headed back out. I dubbed our team "Blair's Groupies" because he's the only one of us who can actually play. He grew up playing soccer and played for his school teams. He's sooooooo good. He tried to teach us, but I don't think much of it actually sunk in. I took a break to cut Mama's hair, Karen climbed a tree, and then we all went in. Karen and Blair played Wii golf, and Matt and I played Oh Phooey again. He won, but just barely. We had planned earlier in the week to go to a 4th party with some friends and decided this afternoon to go swimming afterwards instead of watching fireworks. We had a great time at Amanda's house. Several people were there, including my international friends Azhar, Areej, and Sachie who were celebrating their first Independence Day. After too much food and an interesting water balloon fight, Matt, Karen, Blair, and I left to go swimming. We went to the indoor pool at our apartment's "Clubhouse." We swam for a while and then sat in the hot tub. It felt so great! Blair caught two tree frogs, which Karen contained and took home. Matt and Blair played a little air hockey and then we called it a night. Blair and I walked back to the apartment since it was so nice outside. It was just a really fantastic day. I'm so glad we can have fun with Matt and Karen. We have to do it again SOON!!!!!

Here are some pics from today: