The Talens' Tales

Following the Truck Parade, we spent a bit of time at a park near Nick and Dawn's house. And then off to airport.  We were nicely on time. Check-in went fine, but a little longer because of Gideon not being connected to our family. Security was a breeze and we were soon on our way and in Detroit. We easily found our gate in Detroit, had a 10 minute delay for boarding, but soon enough we were on the plane. And that it when the bottom fell out.  While on the plane, the pilots revived notice that Toronto was shut down due to weather. We waited about 20-30 minutes on the plane. They gave us snacks. Then they had us get off the plane and wait in the terminal. Every 30 minutes or so we would be updated that we were still delayed. And we were watching dark clouds and lightening roll into the area surround Detroit, too. Soon, the Detroit airport was shut down too. They brought out snacks and drinks a few different times, but finally around 10 pm (so over 5 hours of being ...

 Once we got to Michigan, we had a GREAT time in Michigan. The weather was fantastic and we tried to do one thing every day. Here are some of the things we did:  We spent the morning at Dutch Village in Holland, Michigan. I hadn't been here since elementary school, so it was fun to see it again and share some of the things I grew up with. We learned to Dutch Dance and saw the large street organ. Joash did a few rides on the Ferris Wheel.  The kids also got to make a stropewaffle. It was a great snack!  We also stopped into visit Grandma VerBeek. It was so nice to see her again and for the kids to put a name with a face. Another day we went to the Boulder Ridge Wildlife Park . This was a fantastic park! There is a safari ride you take to see many of the larger animals. The rest of the animals are in a very nice area that is easy to walk around. This park was originally started as a business that bred animals for zoos. Because of this, you are able to...

So, after much discussion and finding out the facts around the credit we got from the airline that if we were going to use our credit, we needed to go to Michigan yet this summer. So we booked tickets for the last week of August to return late in the night before the first day of school. However, if you know us at all, you know that it is rare for our travel to go as planned when flying. We left at quarter to 7 in the morning from Charlottetown. I love living 10 minutes from the airport.  Gideon was pretty pleasant on the plane.  We made it to Toronto and that is when things fell apart. First, we had to sit on the plane for an extra 10 minutes to wait for our gate to open up. . Then we had to stop at the ticketing counter to get our boarding passes. We had learned in Charlottetown that somehow when our tickets were booked, something went weird with Gideon as a lap infant. He wasn't connected to our family, but was still booked, just out on his own. So, that made eve...

We took a quick trip with the whole family to Halifax on Monday. The real reason for this trip was to visit the US Consulate to report Gideon's birth, renew Joash's US passport and to renew my US passport. But we also planned something fun too. Many people asked why didn't go down the day before and stay in a hotel. The truth is we were slightly terrified to have our entire family sleep in one room together. Everyone sleeps so well at home, in their own rooms. And our appointments were not until late morning, so could pretty much get up the time we normally do and be there on time. So there was lots of driving. Praise the Lord for the DVD player in our van. It certainly makes things much more pleasant for everyone. Gideon was a pretty good traveler, but I think he was pretty sick of his car seat by the end of the day.  We have zero pictures of our time at the Consulate because the security is pretty tight there. Wilbert had to go and bring his phone back our van. We...

Once we returned from Michigan, it will full on Talen family Christmas time with the whole family. All of the siblings and spouses were here, so we had a house full. I am really thankful for this house and the space we have so it is easy to hold everyone.  We did a lot of things together. One evening, all of the adults went to The Escape Room in Charlottetown. It was so much fun! You are locked a room and have one hour to solve all sort of puzzles that open different locks that eventually lead you to a key that opens the door. We got out with five minutes to spare. I highly recommend it if you have a group that likes puzzles and problem solving. We had our gift exchange as well. This year all of the adults got a pair of Darn Tough socks. So comfortable and they have a life time guarantee.  We also just hung out around home a lot. Wilbert felt short next to his brothers. There was lots of coffee and snacks to go around. And of course lots of singing and pl...

A few weeks ago we did our biannual trip to Michigan to see my entire family. Our flights there went amazingly well. I am pretty sure it is the first time we have flown to Michigan since living on PEI that we did not have any problems. We had only one stop, but it was a rather long lay over. So we walked pretty much the entire airport. They had a nice kids play area, so we stayed there for a bit and let the kids run. They enjoyed it. While in Michigan, we had just a few family events. My dad's side of the family had their Christmas party one evening and almost everyone was able to make it. The kids and Great- Grandma. All of the great- grand children and Great-Grandma. We also had a baby shower for my sister who is due in February. It was a great chance to see many of my aunts and cousins, several of whom I had not seen in over 5 years. We did a few fun things with just my family as well. We visited The Critter Barn, a really nice petting farm with a lot of d...

Sometime I find is hard to know what to share about my life and what God is doing in it. I feel I have a wonderful, but rather average life. I am a dairy farmer's wife and mom. My days consist of driving to places for my kids or husband, housework, cooking and laundry. I like to read, do puzzles and make cards in my spare time. I am involved in a few different things at my church. We are all healthy and we are not in great need of anything. So sometimes I think that what I see God doing in my life isn't really worth telling other people about. There is little drama or excitement. But for the past two years I have been a part of a group in our church whose main objective is help us do just that - tell our story. And to tell it to help disciple others in their walk with God as well. And something big in our lives happened this week that God has been prodding me to tell. So, here I go. That big thing is... we sold a house. Now this may not seem like a big thing in the gr...

Well, thankfully, the trip home was much less stressful then the trip to Michigan. We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to check in. We were a little worried to see that we did not have seats assigned for our second flight, but hoped that would all work out at the gate.  After getting our terrified 3 year old through security, we had time to wait and eat breakfast at the airport. We departed just a bit late, but the quick flight to Chicago is always nice. We arrived at the gate for our next flight in Chicago and were greeted by the gate agent. "You must be the Talen family." We were surprised, but she handed us our boarding passes for the rest of the trip and said we had been upgraded to the Economy Plus seating for the next flight. We asked how she knew it was us and she said that she knew she had an infant who needed a seat, so Mataya was the give away for her. Flight to Newark was fine, but a little interesting. This is the flight were the passenger would no...

Once we got there, our time in Michigan was great! Lots of time with family and lots of extra hands to help with the kids. We went to the Christmas Day service at my parents church and got to hear the church choir's Christmas Cantata. Then we spend much of the day eating and letting the kids open gifts. My parents had also put together a Christmas Memory Game with prize. Make a match and you win what is pictured. It was super fun and Joash had a great time being the present distributor.  My grandma also came over on Christmas day to spend time with us and meet Mataya. Thursday we got to see my sister's house, which is super nice. In the evening we got together with entire VerBeek family for family pictures and to have a meal together in celebration of Grandma's upcoming 80th birthday. Friday the girls and kids visited one of my aunts and cousins on the Overweg side. It was so nice to see them as well. Saturday we had a sledding party at my aunt and uncle's fa...

This picture sort of sums up our recent trip to Michigan for Christmas. Lots of time in the airport. Lots of time waiting. Lots of time in the car. But looking back, even though out travels out to Michigan didn't go as planned, we can see how God was working though it all to make it as good of an experience as possible for us. We actually made it to my parents house only 9 hours later than we were supposed too and considering the circumstances, that is pretty amazing in and of itself. We were supposed to leave for Michigan on Monday, December 23 from Halifax at 7:00am. We had planned to leave our house at around 1 in the morning and just drive it and get there by 5 to check in for our flight. We could not leave the day before because Wilbert was directing the church choir for the Candlelight service which was to take place that Sunday evening. Well all week leading up this, they had been predicting pretty awful weather for Sunday. Saturday we had rain and there was freezing rai...

Once we got to Michigan, we had a great time. Joash had lots of fun playing with everyone. Here are some of the things he did: Hanging out with Grandpa and Grandma, playing with new toys and new people, reading books with Grandma, playing catch with Dad and the Uncles and practicing walking. Of course, since it was Christmas, that meant a lot of presents! We had a great time with the whole family.  Joash really enjoyed his first Christmas in Michigan!

Well, Joash had his 6 months check up and he is doing great. He weighs 17 lbs and is 26 1/2 inches long. He has great hearing and vision and is right on track with his milestones.  He also got his 6 month immunizations today. Notice I said immunization. Not "needles" which is what they call them here. I find that really weird because we never called them that in the States. We went to get our "shots." When I was talking about this with Wilbert, he said that sounded much more violent than needle, which is true, I guess. So, I have decided to call them immunizations and just avoid the whole issue altogether. Joash is also trying new foods. In Canada, they recommend that you start with meat, because they want the child to get as much iron as possible. Here is Joash's first taste of chicken. He was not a fan. He gagged pretty bad on his first bite. But, he will eat it when mixed with his cereal. When he got his immunizations, they said to try and mix the meat with ...

Yesterday we made the trip to Halifax to report Joash's birth to the US government and apply for his US passport. We were pleasantly surprised by how well the trip went and how smoothly the process went at the Consulate. We had a morning appointment, so we left early in the morning. I fed Joash just before we left, so he slept the majority of the way down there. We arrived at the Consulate about an hour before our appointment, but we went in anyway and explained that we had an appointment and we knew we were early, but I needed to feed my son and would just like to sit in the waiting room to do that. So, we were allowed in and they actually got started on our process about a half an hour before our appointment was actually scheduled. Since we had everything we needed, we just handed it all over and all was well. We were finished by 10:30 AM, so that was great. We did find it a little odd though how it is set up. I imagined we were going to be called into a office and sort of inter...

One nice thing about being from two different countries is that we can celebrate more holidays. And since there are a few more people from the states here, last night we had our own American Thanksgiving feast. There were six couples and all of the wives and two of the husbands were from the States. So the Americans out numbered the Canadians, which doesn't happen very often. And we had a feast. There was turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans, bread, stuffing and three different kinds of pies for dessert and a pumpkin cake. It was wonderful. And the fellowship was great too. The hosts said there was no assigned seating, so the ladies all sat together at one of the table and guys at the other. It was funny how it worked out, but we had great conversations full of laughter. It was a great way to celebrate a holiday. Hopefully we have started our own tradition here.