Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - August 3, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 16^th Birthday, Samantha Norton!

Naomi wishes that she could be with her best same-grade friend for her special day, but Samantha is happiest about getting her next-level driver’s license and now she can drive on her own!  No, she isn’t the first of Naomi and Aaron’s classmates to reach that next level, but this one is important to us – and not just because Samantha could take her younger girlfriends on drives to the city for shopping or other fun!  We did leave gifts and did a vid-chat with her live from Banff, Alberta; so that little cameo birthday moment was fun and we are sure she’ll still have an amazing day without us.

Here in Alberta, we’re definitely getting to experience the Rocky Mountains in summer and the difference between elevations.  While we had a comparatively-cool Sunday in and around Calgary, the high today in Banff didn’t reach the mid-sixties; and the low tonight is expected to be in the high-thirties!  For the Canadians around us who won’t read our journals, that’s around four degrees Celsius.  It really isn’t that far from Calgary to Banff, but it is still a different world climbing up into the Rockies, and while Banff is ‘only’ about eleven-hundred feet higher in elevation than Calgary; the mountains in Banff National Park tower around the town to heights of over eleven-thousand feet.  That made the scenery around us fairly-awesome for that vid-chat with Samantha earlier today; and we really love it here a lot.

No, our work did not include real estate inquiries into vacation homes in the area, but coming back here for a winter holiday would be awesome!  As for Cassie and Michael’s actual work, you will not be surprised to learn that environment and conservation projects top the list for the area – though we did joke about the possibility of partnering on a ski resort!  We’ve done a bit of sightseeing too, but will only be doing a bit of driving into Banff National Park because our major mountain sightseeing is booked for the British Columbia version of Glacier National Park and we’ll do that part of the trip on Wednesday.  In addition to the work that included two site visits, our favorite parts of the day have included the lunch and dinner meals; the cameo sightseeing while driving between work meetings and sites; and the evening lakeside hike and hot springs visit before we returned to our hotel for the night.

While our day has been amazing; the world news has been bipolar and chaotic.  Political and media reports for the Iran war continue to be all over the place, and President Trump keeps flopping between claims of an imminent peace deal to threats of total destruction for Iran.  Today he again added in the ‘old’ decapitation threats; and we have no doubt that Iran’s leaders will not be interested in any meetings that could lead to their own demise.  For the history books; let’s remind our future Magi readers that the attacks on Iran at the end of February this year happened when the Ayatollah was meeting at his home with advisors and other leaders to discuss the proposed peace deal with the United States and ‘we’ took advantage of that meeting to kill him – and most of his family down to the grandchild level.  Claiming that new, similar attacks are planned and ready to be implemented just proves that our enemies cannot trust anything we say or any deals we make with them.

That’s as-true for Russia and their war with Ukraine; and they seem to understand that now; so they are changing tactics to work toward winning the conflict on the ground.  Take that as meant; since we don’t think that anyone wins when it comes to most wars.  The low-lights out of Ukraine include a Ukrainian drone strike on a beach that killed six people including three children, and while the Ukrainians are fighting for media sound bytes; Russia continues to encircle troops in multiple places along the front lines; they’ve pretty much shut down all Ukrainian ports; and they are also going after transportation infrastructure for everything from gas stations to railways and key bridges.  All of that is in response to Ukrainian attacks of all kinds into Russia; and they are definitely trying to starve the Ukrainian armed forces of everything from ammunition and fuel to food and basic human supplies.  The impact for ‘normal’ people is going to be horrific; and we haven’t even got into writing about costs that include mass unemployment as jobs are lost due to port and factory closures.  The Ukrainian economy is already dependant on foreign aid; and now more will be needed just to survive daily life – if that support can get to the people at all.  At some point, inflation is irrelevant if there is nothing left in the stores to buy.

Let’s stop there.  We’ve had an awesome day here in and around Banff; we’re ready to wrap up with a last bit of co-ed cuddle and chat time with our best friends and favorite cuddle buddies; and then we’ll get some sleep so we’ll be ready for our continuing adventures in the Rocky Mountains.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - August 2, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 13^th Birthday, Drew Spencer!

Happy 1^st Anniversary, Allen and Marcie White!

Along with the parties and buffet dinner at the Inn, we’ve missed out on a beautiful, sunny day at home; we might have gone out to Quarry Lake with the cousins that went out their either for Drew’s party or because there was already a gang going out there anyway; and we definitely would have gone to the buffet dinner because Mom and Dad were there with family and friends.

No complaints will be filed here, since while it was cooler with the high barely hitting seventy, it was also sunny; and we spent quite a bit of the day at an amusement park.  Calaway Park isn’t quite on the same scale as Canada’s Wonderland, but it is comparable to our favorite near-home amusement park; there were more than enough thrill rides; and we had a lot of fun there.  Cassie and Michael still had some work to do today too and we even multi-tasked a bit of that at the amusement park – and no, they did not scare anyone by trying to get contracts signed on any thrill rides!  That would be funny if possible, but I digress; so let’s move on.  The thrill rides and shows were the entertainment highlight of our day, but we had a couple of good meals too; and a last bit of walking time in Calgary before we head for Banff tomorrow.  We’re going to be up early for that departure; so let’s just wrap this up with the world news report.

The Iran war bombings are or aren’t off again today and the Ukraine war news included another major Ukrainian drone wave into Russia and another major Russian missile and drone attack across Ukraine; so nothing has really changed for either war.  Closer to here – and to where we’re heading – are the stories about the wildfires in the Spokane, Washington area that is massive and causing a lot of damage and evacuations.  Every major wildfire is serious, and we hope that the firefighters will get it under control sooner instead of later; and pray that everyone will also stay safe and well despite all of the property damage.

There has been another shooting in our country – this time in Twin Falls, Idaho, where at least two people were killed and others injured in an attack that happened at an EV charging station and an apparently just-opened restaurant.  We do not want to get into the details, but there may have been an armed civilian that stopped the gunman that initiated the attack, but details are being held back by police; so we’ll wait to get more info before offering more.  This is another example of violence spreading in our country and around the world; and that will not get better as long as the social and economic stresses continue to build.  The migrant crisis in Europe through that Spanish enclave continues to be a top story, and we still think that nobody should be surprised when life in most of the Middle East is so horrible for ‘normal’ people that the rich and powerful don’t care about at all.  If our world leaders do not want migration crises; stop making countries unlivable for everyone but the extremely wealthy!

That’s enough for today and this first weekend of August.  We’re about to start our last full week of this trip; we’ll spend most of that week in British Columbia; and we are really looking forward to the trip across the Rocky Mountains that should be amazing for both the scenery and the weather that could change intra-day as we deal with a wide variety of elevations and environmental conditions.  Stay tuned for all of those stories while we go and get some sleep so we’ll be ready for all of the fun!

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - August 1, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 11^th Anniversary, Jake and Stephanie!

Happy 26^th Birthday, Shayne Gordon!

We had vid-chats with Michael’s family and with Shayne and Serena, and gifts were left or sent, but that was the extent of our celebration fun today.  We cannot report celebrations for our family baseball teams this weekend, and while Ethan, Aiden, and Aaron are being blamed for their team’s loss last night without them; Zack and Eli didn’t fare any better for their game this afternoon.  They did get to have a nice, sunny day that was actually a bit cooler with the high in the low-eighties, but there were also chores that we missed out on; and the family play time was fairly-quiet too.

Here in Calgary, we had some work to do with Cassie and Michael, but we also spent more time with sightseeing.  In addition to some great meals, we visited Fort Calgary and the Heritage Park Historical Village.  We love living history attractions, so we loved the village; and are not interested in that kind of change in lifestyle!  After dinner, we went to the Peace Bridge – a walking bridge that connects to Prince’s Island Park, and while that was a quieter kind of fun; we really loved the walk and river and city scenery.  We returned to our hotel after that; went for a swim; and now we’re winding down toward nap time with some quality co-ed cuddling and chat time.  Cassie and Michael aren’t doing that with us anymore; and we do not need to write about what they might be having fun with instead that they didn’t need us around them for the rest of the night!

That brings us to the world news report.  We haven’t written about a story out of northern Africa yet, but there has been a major migrant invasion of a Spain-controlled enclave called Ceuta.  The way that is happening has caused some panic in Europe, but nobody should be surprised that this is happening when it is an expected consequence of the Middle East war with Iran.  The war zones are only part of that problem, since it is also the poorest countries already having problems with food security; so starving people are going to move to where there is food.  If they are desperate-enough; they will go further and try to take what they need to survive.

In Ukraine, the heavy bombing continues from Russia causing massive destruction every day; the drones keep flying from Ukraine against ‘soft’ targets in Russia; and we saw a report of a terrorist bombing of a restaurant in Moscow that proves Ukraine is still pushing asymmetric warfare.  The related rhetoric from the Ukrainian and western leaders is devoid of any truth or base in reality for what is actually happening on the ground; and nobody is seriously talking about peace as it grows more-likely that they will keep fighting until one side loses.

That could end up being true for the Iran war too, and after the big reveal of the amazing, historic deal with the Palestinians and Israelis, there has basically been nothing – and no verified confirmation that this deal happened anywhere outside of President Trump’s mind.  That’s a bit harsh, but then he’s also been claiming that the destruction of Iran’s energy infrastructure is again imminent; and Iran is promising to destroy energy and water facilities in the other Gulf States in retaliation if ‘we’ actually try to do that.  We do not want to see that happen, but positions on both sides are hardening; and we will not be surprised if our leaders escalate regardless of how insane that choice would be for the world.  We’re still waiting on the edge of that story; so we’ll let you know what happens whether insanity prevails or cooler heads keep us from going over that cliff.

That’s enough for tonight.  We have had an awesome day and we’re going to have more fun tomorrow for our last full day in Calgary; so we want to rest up to be at full power again for all of those adventures.  I’m good with focusing more on cuddling with Aiden, since the other two couples in the room are way ahead of us on that part of our evening; so we’re out of here and ready to wind down toward nap time soon.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - July 31, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 5^th Anniversary, Nora and Elliott Roberts!

Before we get to our own news of the day, one of the top world stories is the supposedly-historic peace deal brought to the world by President Trump and the Peace Council that has supposedly solved all problems between the Palestinian people and Israel!  The historian twin of our duo doesn’t believe this will prove to be more than more verbal or written promises that will be broken by ‘our’ side at the expense of the Palestinians, but maybe this will actually prove to be an exception; so we’ll wait to see whether any promises are actually kept and hope that the remaining Palestinians will actually be allowed to not just survive in open-air prisons, but actually be helped to thrive and rebuild their lives as they choose.

While we’re covering the world news anyway, the top news out of Ukraine includes stories about claimed Russian missiles landing in Poland and doing no damage with no real proof that it happened at all as opposed to attempts to create false flag outrage against Russia in Poland; major missile and drone attacks throughout Ukraine; and more Ukrainian drone strikes on civilian Russian online retailer warehouse-distribution centers.  We won’t suggest that a Russian missile could never go off-course for various reasons, but the ‘evidence’ of craters in fields and debris seems to be as bogus to us as a previous incident was for a supposed drone crash in Poland from a few years ago that had the drone miraculously crash-landing intact on top of a chicken coop!  Everyone in the west really needs to remember that Ukraine really wants to draw NATO directly into their war with Russia; and this wouldn’t be the first attempt to help that to happen.

The continuing air attacks into Ukraine and essential shut-down of the Ukrainian Black Sea ports are very serious, and while more focus from the western media goes to the Middle East straits and restricted or stopped shipping there; losing the Ukraine ports could have a serious impact on world food supplies – and not just for the grain products.  Ukraine will have serious new issues for transporting military weapons, but also with civilian imports, and without their exports; their economy will be in even-worse shape than it already is and could be devastating by winter.

Thanks to that Peace Council deal announcement, the rest of the problems in the Middle East got moved off the front page for main media outlets and networks, but all of those stresses are still there; and nothing has really changed on the ground.  That’s enough for the world news today; so let’s get to our own highlights of the day-so-far.

Calgary is an amazing city – and not just for the Rocky Mountains view.  Our fellow Americans might only know Calgary for their annual Calgary Stampede rodeo, and while we couldn’t be here for that event; we did see where that happens while driving around the city today and between work meetings and site visits.  We can’t really give the city credit for original names for that venue, since it is simply called Stampede Park and is located on Stampede Trail, but we do know that it is a world-famous rodeo event; and we should mention that the Ridge River Ranch Carters have a connection; since Kristy has trained both horses and stunt riders that have appeared for events at the Stampede.  For the record, Kristy has not been here, but that likely has more to do with how busy she is every summer; and she prefers to work from home whenever possible.

We should actually write about Cassie and Michael’s work in at least a bit of detail, and while Alberta – and Calgary – is known for more than the energy and oil industry; that is a major component of their economy; and a major contributor to world and American energy.  Canada is the fourth-largest oil producer and exporter, and while the majority of their exports go to the United States for refining, it still accounts for around four percent of daily world usage; around half of the oil imports to our country; and around ten percent of world supply that is exported surplus as opposed to production that is kept by countries for domestic use.  That little lesson in energy data isn’t really relevant to the work we are doing in the Calgary area, but we’re including it because it is important; and the work we want to help with here in Alberta isn’t only about the energy needs and economy but also helping to mitigate the serious environmental impacts from the industry.  Oil companies and governments are happy to invest in resources extraction, but not so much when there are only costs for fixing the environmental damage they cause in the process.  We can’t fix everything, but we can help – and do through family businesses and charities.  It would be great if the system was different, but it isn’t; so we’re dealing with reality and that includes partnerships that help to make the money that we spend on those charity environmental projects.  As for our sightseeing, other than the cameo views and stops between the work, the only official stop on our itinerary was the Glenbow Museum.  We were not there long-enough to come close to checking out everything when they have more than one million objects on-site, but Ethan might have read more of the documents than the curators have in years of study; and the rest of us did the best we could with our own talents for observation and memory!

This update is coming to you between the daytime work and our dinner and play plans for the evening.  We’ll be checking out a local cuisine steakhouse for that meal; and we are going to visit the National Music Centre this evening – the home of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and a display of more than two-thousand musical instruments and artifacts.  No, Naomi and the Haunted Harmonies did not get booked to play the music hall tonight, but that would have been fun! ;^)

That’s all we have for today-so-far and we need to get going; so we’re out of here and back to the real life adventures in this amazing city and country!

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - July 30, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 21^st Anniversary, Philip and Liz Seager!

Naomi is missing out on her parents’ celebration beyond the vid-chat we did with them, but then we’re still helping them out with the kid-free night – or month for one of their kids; and we wouldn’t have gone along to the pub for that part of their party tonight anyway!  Their family and friends are making sure they are having a happy day; we left gifts for them too; and that’s pretty much all we have for that story so far today.

As for our adventures, we’re closing in on Calgary as we’re writing this update; and this has been another travel-work day with stops along the way from Regina to Calgary that were again mostly about agricultural partnerships with one charity conservation project site visit near the Alberta-Saskatchewan border.  The weather has been beautiful and sunny from the chilly, cooler morning in Regina to the afternoon highs in the mid-eighties.  While we loved the cameo sightseeing today, we’re amazed by the view of the Rocky Mountains that we’re just beginning to see as we close in on Calgary.  It really is amazing to see that happen while still so far away that the mountains come into view from a curvature of the earth perspective, and while similar views are available in our country too; we haven’t experienced that in person.  Cassie and Michael have; so they knew when to get us to start watching for the phenomenon; and they helped us out with locating the first visible peaks too.  We’ll have more on world wonders in the coming days, but that’s enough for our own news; and we’ll cover the rest of our adventures from Calgary with the next report too.

As for the world news; war is back on in the Middle East with new bombings against Iran; on American targets in Jordan; and ships are still being targeted and restricted in both straits.  There were additional, new attacks aimed at Iraqi militant groups that are actually also part of the Iraqi armed forces; so escalations like that could really expand the war if those militant groups join in to fight America and Saudi Arabia too.  The Ukraine war continues to be horrendous; the people on the ground on both sides continue to suffer the most; and our leaders roll on without any care for the true costs as long as they keep power and get richer.  Other than ongoing destruction and death on the ground, there aren’t many changes to report from Ukraine – partly because the western media is ignoring all of the bad news for Ukraine ranging from their troops being surrounded in multiple locations along the front lines to the devastation happening in Odessa, Kiev, and elsewhere.

Compared to all of that, reports of coordinated cyber attacks on thirty Minnesota water systems seems minor, but got media attention because the blame was directed at Iranian hackers.  That’s convenient, but then if not Iran; Russian hackers are right there to blame instead whenever needed!  We can’t possibly just blame bad government for wasted spending or taking cheapest bids – or recognize that there are cyber-criminals and hacktivists willing to take advantage of old, vulnerable systems.  That would risk exposing government corruption and incompetence; and we can’t have that!

Let’s stop there.  We’re getting close to Calgary now; the co-ed cuddle time and view of the mountains is more-entertaining that writing about narcissists and crooks; so we’re going to get back to the real world fun starting right now.

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