The Kramers Meet The Hunters!

We had fun while Lucy and her family were here...it was a short visit, they arrived on sunday afternoon, and stayed until tuesday morning. They are now in Gatlinburg TN and are staying there a week, and then off to NYC for a few days before heading back to the Netherlands. I've never had to travel with more than 2 kids, so my hat goes off to her, keeping it all together!

Sunday afternoon we went out to the lake where our friend Zack lives. He has a little lake cottage (tiny, 2 bedrooms, but perfect for a single guy!) and we swam, kayaked, and the guys all took their turns at wake boarding with Zach's ski boat.

We grilled burgers and had a picnic outside complete with ants..auugh! Then we came back to the house, and celebrated Lucy's son Pim's 16th birthday with a good old American chocolate cake!

The kids were so tired that they slept in the next morning until nearly 11am! We wanted to go back to the lake in the evening, so we decided to stay around Columbia during the day. Lucy's husband Rene plays guitar, and wanted to check out some local music shops, so while they did that (Jeff and Pim went too, so it was all the boys in one car, and all the girls in the other!) Lucy and the girls and I went to Joann's for fabric and quilting supplies. Then we all went to that great american institution called TACO BELL! :cD Jeff wanted Pim and the girls to try his favorite. It was a big hit, and fun to see them try everything.

After that...the mall! The kids loved it, the parents tolerated it...but for them, the clothes are so inexpensive here, it was fun for them to shop for some things the kids needed and wanted before school starts for them in September. Natasja found a pair of levi's for $29.99 that would have been about $120.00 equivalent in Holland. Bargain :c)

After the shopping, back to the lake we went for more boating and swimming and wake boarding. We grilled salmon this time and had a wonderful evening of visiting and talking.

In the middle of everything I had a BAD computer crash :c( I knew it had been coming...I'd reformatted, recovered, defragged, condensed files, purged...and still for no reason the computer would just blip off in the middle of whatever you were doing, and beep this terrible repetitive beep!

It's more than a simple job....and so last night I went to Best Buy and bought a new puter with a really nice flat screen monitor because I deserve it! It was a package deal, computer, monitor, and a photo printer that I didn't need..but who knows...maybe now that I have it I will use it? It was cheaper together as a package than it would have been separately without the photo printer.

Jason wants a computer to mess with. So I might send him the broken one and he can figure out if it needs a new motherboard or whatever. He loves to tinker...and I love this new monitor so much! Now I just have to HOPE that I can set the old computer back up and get some more stuff off it. The pictures that Lucy took while here are on the OTHER computer :c( So I have no pics to send with this. My camera never made it out of it's case because I was busy cooking and leaving the picture taking up to Lucy! I'll get some from her when she is able to upload them onto her computer.

Oh...after Lucy left....I came back up here and saw she had left HER camera! There was no way to contact her while on her drive, I didn't have a number for their cell phone (and it is a netherlands one?) so I called the cabin rental place they had used my phone to call earlier in the day to make sure everything was ready. Thank heavens for vonage and being able to get online and see the outgoing calls! I called the number back, explained the situation, and they gave me the address to send their camera to, and I ran it right off to UPS. It should be there tomorrow....another bad situation solved! She called me last night while I was at the computer store, to tell me they had already had an adventure with a BEAR at the cabin..I'll let her tell you the rest!

Bonnie