Visit with a Secretary

Today I had the unique experience of a 5 minute, one-on-one talk with the Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner. Here is the reason: I was his golf cart driver on part of a tour of my plant at Honeywell for our Green Technology. He is a very personable and friendly man. I wouldn't be if I was just reamed out by a Senate committee the day before. He asked me about my job, where I lived, about my commute and finally my feelings on the economy and if we are finally emerging. Guess what? I am actually taller than he is. Woo hoo! I had two secret service guys right behind me on the rear facing back seat and two more on the rear facing seat in the golf cart in front of me. So that means I was probably the safest one there besides Secretary Geithner because I was surrounded by Secret Service, or maybe the first to do down.

I knew I was going to be a driver but I didn't know that every one involved with this tour was required to wear a RED Honeywell T shirt. They passed out the shirts and I noticed the price tag on it - $5.95 and made in Nicaragua. I thought we should have gotten the nice button down long sleeved Honeywell shirt. It was after all below zero. Fun experience.

Start your engines - It's Pinewood Derby time

This is Joseph's first Pinewood Derby. He made a shiny red car and was excited to be running in the race.
Just look at that excitement.

Line 'em up!

There they go. Joe's car came in second.

The finish

Sisters.

Some of the people at the end;

Tyler was the overall winner and three other 1st places. He had a very fast car and did almost all the work on it himself.

Joseph and his award.

Lorelei had a birthday

Just a couple days after her brother was baptized, Lorelei had her sixth birthday.
She couldn't wait to open more presents. She knew there would be some doll accessories.

Besides there was also a dragon hand puppet.

Gigi was excited too 'cause she knew she would get to play with the new stuff.

Some of the loot.

Can you tell we all had chocolate ice cream? Good stuff.

The whole family got in on the playing. Fun for all.

Joseph's baptism

Joseph is eight years old and was excited to be a baptized member of the church. On Jan 9 at 10:00AM we had his baptism. I gave a 2.5 minute talk on Baptism.
Joseph and dad

Joseph and his family

Afterwards we were all hungry for something to eat and Culver's was right down the street. Smenteks and the elders joined us.

Liam was trying something.

Putting Katchup on his nose. He thought it was great fun.

All smiles.

See that straw? What just went through it, is now in Joseph's mouth and has yet to be swallowed.

Larsen Christmas

Since is was the odd year and all our kids spent Christmas at the In-Laws, we kept the presents under the tree and had the 2009 Larsen Christmas in 2010. Logan and Liam got new soft footsie pajamas and were thrilled to get them.

Gigi felt like decorating herself with some ribbon.
Even Jeff wanted to be festive.
Both Gigi and Lorelei got some small princess dolls.

And Joseph got a paper airplane calendar with a new paper airplane for each day.
Andrew and Brandon got some new stuff too but weren't as excited as Logan and Liam.
The high light was the big dolls that both Lorelei and Gigi got. They loved them.

Chuck E Cheese

On New Years Day, Logan and Liam went to play at Chuck E Cheese and they invited Gramma and Grampa. Mom and dad tagged along. There was also pizza, not the beast pizza but the Dudes liked it. Most of the time was spent on the money takers.Logan was happy on the bug ride and even had a great smile.
Liam enjoyed the monster truck ride.
Logan wanted to shoot some spiders so we did. It was right next to our pizza table so it was very convenient. He got a lot of them with a little help from Grampa. It's time for your growing spurt.

Cub Scout Shirt

Joseph had his 8th birthday at Thanksgiving time. Therefore he became a cub scout. He needed a shirt. What to do. Going through the closet of stuff that belongs to our kids (yes, they still have a lot of stuff stored at Mom and Dad's house) I found Kyle's old cub scout shirt. I don't think there was any more room to add awards. It was pretty full. We removed all the badges and awards and gave the shirt to Joseph. Now that he is a Bobcat, he has a lot of work ahead of him to get his shirt looking like his uncle's. Go, go Joe!