The Talens' Tales

The Island is known for having pretty favorable weather conditions. There are rarely temperature extremes in any season. We get a lot of precipitation, but usually not in any crazy storms. Thunderstorms are even a rarity, though we do get an occasional weak hurricane. When my husband came to Iowa for college, one things he was excited for was the possibility of experiencing a Midwest thunderstorm and maybe even seeing a tornado. It drove me nuts when a good thunderstorm rolled through and he would say he hoped it would produce a tornado. Well, in eight years of living in a tornado prone area, he never saw one. He was always a bit disappointed. So imagine our surprise when we saw this as we were leaving the harbor for our deep sea fishing excursion on Monday: A little funnel cloud. In a sunny sky. No thunderheads above. No rain even in the forecast. Really weird. Here is a little news article about the cloud. It is interesting to learn that...

This past weekend the whole Talen family was together, so we had a family fun weekend. Saturday we went to play some disc golf. It was quite a hilly course, so we all got our workout in pushing Joash around. Joash staring his disc golf practice by chewing on a disc.  Most of family, just missing Emil and Karisa. It was a lovely view from the top of the course. All of that riding in the stroller wore Joash out. He is taking a little snooze in this picture. Sunday we went to the beach. I didn't take any pictures. But it was a nice day, just a little cool. Joash took a little nap while Opa pushed him in his stroller on the beach. Monday the whole family went deep sea fishing. I was a little leery of this since the only other time I have gone deep sea fishing, I got really sea sick. Thankfully, it was a beautiful, calm day.  Ready to fish.  Joash did really well fishing. He didn't pull on the line too much. We were pretty successful, too. We caught several macke...

This is Joash's new thing. He likes to give us big sloppy "zerberts". This comes from the Cosby show. Watch the first 1:30 for the back story. Here is Joash with his take on the Zrbt

When ever we talk about our trip, one of the first questions asked is how did Joash do with all of the traveling. And the answer is great. Joash stayed awake for the whole flight out. Apparently when he is tired, loud noises scare him (like Wilbert sneezing) and silly things make him laugh ( like the window shade going up and down. Turbulence also brought some laughs.  Hanging out on the plane with Mom. The car rides went pretty well too. We were stuck in construction on the way to and from Minnesota. Joash did well at taking his naps. He did cry a for a while, but for being in the car for 12 hours, he did wonderfully.  Sleeping in the car. He looks quite thoughtful. On the way home, we took the ferry from Nova Scotia to the Island. It was a nice break in our day of travel and we all enjoyed being outside on the water. It was quite foggy and Joash was startled every time the fog horn sounded. Thanks to our happy traveler, we now are confident...

We are taking a short break from our vacation recap to bring you an interview with a very cute 9 month old. All of the interview photographs were taken by Amy Hanson.  M(om): Well Joash, how has this ninth month of life treated you? J(oash): It has been great, Mom. I have done a lot of new things for the first time and I am pretty happy with my life. M:What were some of those firsts? J: I flew on  an airplane and rode on a boat. I took my first trip to a foreign country. I also had my first ear infection, which was not such a fun first, but so it goes. M:What things do you like to do these days? J: I love to go outside. I like the fresh air and all of the things to see. I like going for walks with you, Mom and just sitting outside in my stroller too. I also like to play and move around. I can get from a sitting position to my tummy really well. I am trying really hard to move around, but it is tough. Right now I just pivot in circles on my tummy and sometimes ...

After a few days in Michigan, we headed out to Minnesota and Iowa to see some of our friends. We stayed with our best friends in Minnesota and had a great time. On Saturday, we had lunch with the Buskers and I got to see my favorite five year old again. Both he and his sister thought Joash was really cool and he kept making faces at Joash and doing other things to get Joash to smile. It was great to see them again and get caught up on their lives and what was happening at school. Saturday evening one of Wilbert's roommates from college was married, so we saw many people that we haven't seen in a long time. Alas, I did not take any pictures since I was busy with a little boy. But the wedding was very nice and it was good to see so many people again. Sunday we went to our old church in Edgerton and it was so much fun to see everyone. We were able to talk to just about everyone we wanted too, expect for one couple who was away for the weekend. There were four of us who were pr...

While our time in Michigan was short, we packed in a lot of family. My grandma's and other relatives wanted to see us and meet Joash.  Four generations: Grandma O. , my mom, me, and Joash.  Four generations: Grandma VB., my dad, me and Joash. Grandma VB and all of her great grand children. As you can tell, Joash is quite out numbered at the moment. There are a lot of girls in the VerBeek family.  There are seven grandchildren and five our girls. The same is true on the Overweg side. There are twenty-three grand children and only six are boys. But of the twelve great-grand children are dead even,  six and six. Anyway, those four girls just sat and watched Joash for a long time. They thought a baby was pretty cool, for a while at least. I think Joash also thought the girls were pretty cool because he like watching them play as well.

We just returned from a wonderful vacation to Michigan and Minnesota.  Our first stop was Grandpa and Grandma's house in Michigan.  Joash just loves Grandpa. I don't know if it is his voice or what, but Grandpa didn't have to do very much to get a smile from Joash.  Grandpa and Grandma had some new (to Joash) toys and Joash had a lot of fun showing Grandpa and Grandma how to play with them.  Aunt Dawn came for visit too. We all loved being together with our family and seeing everyone again. It was fun for this mom as well to have a bunch of extra hands around to help take care of Joash.

The other day, we spent some time at the beach as a family. Joash took a nice nap on the blanket by water. The sound of the waves certainly lulled him to sleep. While he was sleeping, Wilbert decided to build a sand castle. It turned into a team effort, which was quite fun. The last things Wilbert decided to add to his castle was a booby trap. He had dug a hole in the sand to at the nice wet sand underneath. He covered the hole with a criss cross of sticks and the some seaweed and then some sand. It turned out to be a really good booby trap because even though I watched him build it, I was the one who got caught in it. Joash was getting fussy (because, we later found out, he had an ear infection), so I was hurrying around, gathering our things up. My hands were full and I was walking over to grab the last towel when I stepped right into the middle of the booby trap and found my left leg in a hole up to my knee and all of our stuff all over the sand.

I should have taken a picture of this, but I didn't. The other day Joash was eating his supper when the sun poked through the clouds. A sunbeam fell right on the tray of his high chair. He stopped eating and tired again and again to pick up the sunbeam. He would stretch out his little hand and grasp the air right above the sunbeam. Then he would pull his little fist toward him and look at it and be a bit disappointed to see the sunbeam didn't move as well. Wilbert was feeding him and he couldn't do anything to get Joash eating again. He just wanted that sunbeam. Eventually, the sun went back behind the clouds and Joash finished his supper.

Happy Fourth of July! Sorry for not mentioning Canada Day on Friday. We were to busy having fun celebrating at the church picnic and fireworks on the harbor. But today is the Fourth. Independence Day for my native land. So I thought what better way to celebrate the US independence from Britain than to go and catch a glimpse of Prince William and his lovely wife. Today was the Charlottetown, PEI stop on their tour of Canada, so Joash and I hit the streets to catch a glimpse. The plan was for the couple to tour Province House, the hall where Canada began. Then they were to exit the house, Prince William was going to give a little speech, they were going to meet and greet people and then hop in a carriage to go down the street to a park on the water front.  Here we are settled in our spot. It is took a bit to get to a good spot as things were really crowded around Province House and I really had to fight through the crowds with the stroller. But once we got past t...