Jeff and La came from their Montana home for a visit at our Missouri home and–no surprise–we had a great time together. The weather was nice, so a bike ride was on the menu.

Because I know that La likes puzzles, I showed her the puzzle Kathy gave me for Christmas last year. It has the most unusual pieces I’ve ever seen. There are letter-shaped pieces (LOVE) and pieces shaped like hearts, bunnies, flowers, leaves, butterflies, animals, etc. The edges are irregular, so there are no “edge pieces” to start with. I’m not that addicted to puzzles, so I put it away.

When La saw the pieces, she started looking for ways to put them together. It wasn’t long before Jeff and I were helping her. It was hard at first, because the picture of the puzzle was printed on a larger scale than the finished puzzle, making it hard to judge the perspective of where a particular piece should be placed. (Compare the small group of tiny pieces with the large picture in the photo below.) With three of us working on it, I think it only took about an hour to finish the puzzle.

Look for those specially-shaped pieces in this close-up of the finished puzzle.

We spent the following day at Kari’s house with her family. Theo’s girlfriend, Lizzy, joined us and we all had a good time playing some games together.

To stretch our legs, we went to a nearby park and followed a circular path (1-2 miles) around the park.

Ted took a picture of our group.

One day, about a month before Jeff and La’s visit, I wanted to use my laptop computer, but when I turned it on, I saw a screen filled with (to me) gibberish. I tried all my (limited) tricks for rebooting a computer, but nothing worked, so I took it to the Geek Squad. The Geek’s verdict was that either the hard drive or the battery was kaput. My laptop could be fixed, but the cost of a newer laptop would be comparable to the cost of the repair. I decided to replace my 9-year-old laptop with a new one.

Ted and I had an exceptionally full schedule, so I had to fit loading my new laptop with my own software and files in between all the other things that were going on. It seemed to take forever, so I just decided to wait for Jeff to come, hoping that he could show me a faster way to get the job finished. He helped me with that and suggested I give up my (also aging) PC tower and simply connect my larger monitor, my keyboard, and my mouse to the laptop. I liked that idea and I like working with my new setup.

The federal government was shut down during Jeff and La’s visit, and there were a lot of airline delays. The day before they left, Jeff and La learned that their flight home had been cancelled, but they were able to reserve seats on another flight. They had a class to teach in the evening and didn’t want to miss it, so they needed to choose the early morning flight that required us to leave for the airport at 4:30 a.m. None of us was thrilled about that, but it worked. Ted and I went back to bed after we returned from the airport, Jeff and La had a safe flight home, and they taught their class that evening.

I love family visits. Here’s a photo Jeff took of all of us.