Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - June 30, 2023

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

We had some rain and a thunderstorm early this morning, so Tai Chi was indoors; and still fun thanks to having Naomi and Aiden with us for that little blast of quiet exercise fun.  Getting to have pancakes and sausages for breakfast was a nice bonus; and then it was time to get to work again – first with the clean-up; and then with the rest of the chores we needed to get finished ahead of the holiday weekend adventures.  We had that done by shortly-after noon; lunch was quick and easy; and then it wasn’t long before the Malloys arrived.  Cassie and Michael were with us by then too; and they’d picked up Luke along the way to help Rebecca and Claire with him while they were busy at the Pizzeria or with a rental closing; so the fun level really kicked up after that.

Playing in, on, or near the river since then has kept us busy, but we’re doing another early update for our last one of June; so that’s really all of the news we have for our own adventures so far today.  We are planning on making fun our priority for the next four days, though, so expect better stories from us for all of those updates.  Actually, we can offer two extra stories that don’t really have anything to do with us directly.  The first is that the Everetts are away this weekend; they took Jeremy along so that he can be with Kaitlyn; and they’ll be busy with Aunt Grace’s ‘away’ family for the next four days.  The top story from today started out as a joke or mental musing from Terry Malloy about our little town adding summer cabins somewhere along the river.  Cassie led the way for taking that idea to the next few levels; and now there is already serious talk about both a vacation community addition to town and a retirement community with small, accessible homes for seniors that some grandparents have already expressed an interest in signing up to buy.  We love the idea of having both – especially if we’d get to have more of our favorite people here with us for more than just holiday weekend visits!

We can keep you posted on those stories too as we go along, but that’s – not quite all for us because we’ve skipped the bits of news from last night!  As we’re thinking about that, the only news that matters is that we had fun with Naomi and Aiden; the co-ed sofa sleepover was awesome; and we’re all glad that we had that quiet time together because that might not happen for us again until sometime after the Fourth of July.  We do need to get back to the fun with our family and friends, though, so we’re out of here!

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - June 29, 2023

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

This has been a chores day ahead of the holiday weekend; so we don’t have much news to offer – though we are planning on a co-ed sofa sleepover with Naomi and Aiden tonight; so we do plan on having fun tonight! ;^)

As for our news-so-far, Tai Chi by the river and breakfast with Mom and Dad were good; it was very hot today so some of the chores were tough and required extra swim breaks; and the only interruption we had was thanks to a thunderstorm this afternoon that didn’t really slow us down because we did some work in the storage barn while it rolled through town and then the sun came out again and turned that water into even-more humidity.

Now we’re getting cleaned up ahead of a late dinner.  Naomi and Aiden are doing the same at their own homes while also packing overnight bags; and we’ll be doing that sleepover in the lounge because there is a risk of more thunderstorms early tomorrow morning.  We’ll let you know how the rest of our evening and night goes with our next report, but we really want to put our computers away for the day and just have fun with Mom, Dad, and our best friends – so we will!

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - June 28, 2023

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

We had an awesome night last night!  Our ball practices, the pizza picnic dinner, and the rest of the night and sleepover at Cassie and Michael’s added up to an amazing adventure.  Cassie and Michael had a house full of kids, since our cousins had friends with them, and while we stayed up very late with movies, video gaming, and late-night chats; Ehlana and I still also had a co-ed sofa sleepover with Naomi and Aiden while the rest of the kids filled up the guest bedrooms.  That worked for us; and we were very happy this morning even without much sleep.

Tai Chi by the river was special thanks to Brianna and the rest of the extra exercise buddies.  Breakfast was a fun and tiring event; and then we moved on to another morning with chores and lab or archives play time.  Mom put together a picnic lunch for us; we met up with Naomi, Aiden, and some friends at our house; and then we hit the trails and biked up to Quarry Lake and back for our afternoon adventure.  There was a swim break at the campground; another swim in the river after getting home; and then our friends headed for their homes while we had dinner with Mom and Dad.  Naomi and Aiden met up with us again at the park so that we could help out with the younger kids during the co-ed ball practice; and we kept the kids happy and entertained while their parents were busy playing or socializing on the sidelines.

Mom did a Magi lesson with us after we got home, but we didn’t do any family business work because we’re tired; and needed bath or Jacuzzi time before getting into our beds was an option.  We’ve done that now, and this update is the last bit of computing we wanted to get done tonight; so we’re pretty much ready to crash and nap now.  Before we do that, we should mention that we haven’t spent any time with Cassie and Michael since this morning – mostly because they’ve been busy with work and a birthday celebration for one of the high school friends.  Happy 23^rd Birthday, Joshua Parker!  We haven’t had any part of celebrating his special day, and Cassie and Michael haven’t done more than a gift and best wishes for him in years, but Joshua and Sally are in the next-closest group of friends for them after Rowen and Tim for their hometown connections; so they are happy to be able to get in on the fun in-person this year.  We’re happy for them too – even when that means sharing them with our family, friends, and neighbors.

Okay, that’s enough for tonight.  We really are ready to get some sleep now – so we will!

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - June 27, 2023

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

This is an early update because Cassie and Michael are hosting a sleepover for a small gang of their favorite kids and tweens; we’re packing our overnight bags before heading to the park for baseball and the usual Pizzeria pizza picnic dinner; and we aren’t taking our computers along for our night out.

Our day-so-far started with Tai Chi and breakfast with Mom, Dad, Naomi, and Aiden; we had another morning split between chores at home and lab or archives play time; and then afternoon fun included canoeing and swimming because we wanted to stay on and in the river to stay cool.  All of that worked for us; we’re happy; and ready to keep the awesome going now – so we will!  Stay tuned, and we’ll have the rest of our story for today with our next update, but we need to get going soon; so we’re out of here.

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - June 26, 2023

 

Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden:

Happy 2^nd Anniversary, Julian and Jillian!

We couldn’t celebrate their special day with them because Jillian is away for the week with Julian and they are leading one of his extreme adventure trips.  Jillian is, obviously, off from the lab too, but she’s also working by helping Ehlana with collecting samples of plants and other things that Ehlana wants for her research.

Compared to that kind of extreme fun, our day has been fairly-quiet.  After Tai Chi by the river and breakfast, we helped Mom with chores for more than an hour; spent the rest of the morning at the lab or archives; and then we met up with Naomi and Aiden for lunch and a play afternoon.  We biked the trails around town and at the park; went swimming several times; had a mid-afternoon ice cream snack break at home; and then we kept our best friends for dinner with Mom and Dad.  Brianna and Faith had their usual ball practice, but we only did a bike-by cameo visit; and that was mostly because we were home in time to help Mom with the cooking for dinner.

Our evening has been quiet too.  Mom did a Magi lesson with all four of us after we took care of the clean-up; we set up a tent after that; and we’ve been hanging out in and around it for most of the time since then.  We didn’t do a campfire, but there has been an after-dusk swim; our campsite was raided by Brianna and Faith because they’re camping in the Everett’s back yard; and we haven’t had any trouble with Zack, Eli, and any of their buddies because Zack is hosting a gaming night and they’re too-busy to bug us tonight.  That brings us up to now, and we’re pretty much just chatting and listening to music videos while winding down toward our co-ed camping and nap time.  We’ve had an awesome day if not remember-forever exciting; we’re nearly ready to get to the sleeping part of our night; and that works for all four of us – so we’re going to go there right now!

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!