Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - July 8, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 11^th Birthday, Brianna!

We are currently on the road from Halifax to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island; so we’re writing this update while we have time to do that between the stops we’re making along the way.  Along with the work last night and today; we’ve mixed in some sightseeing, so instead of offering many details about that work; let’s mention some highlights and history for Nova Scotia and Halifax.  Ethan and I read up a bit ahead of this trip, but most of our friends and cousins at home likely don’t know much about Canada in general or the eastern provinces.  For history, the Halifax harbor explosion of nineteen-seventeen would be among the most-famous – a shipping accident in the harbor that involved a collision between ships with one of them fully-loaded with high explosives that decimated the harbor and city; killing and injuring thousands.  It was also the largest explosion known in world history until the invention and testing of nuclear bombs.  Those disaster stories are still amazing; and we can’t help but compare that event to the destruction happening now in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Nova Scotia is world-famous for coastal tides and waves; and we went to see that for ourselves last night and today.  You really have to see and experience that kind of natural power to really understand how awesome it is; and we definitely don’t see that kind of water action on our hometown river or at Quarry Lake!  The spot we visited to see tidal changes has water levels that change by more than fifty feet; and the high-tide inflows are amazing to watch!  There is amazing surfing along the coast too, but we didn’t have time to go out and give surfing a try today – though that would have been awesome!

As for the rest of our sightseeing, we checked out a museum that had Titanic artifacts among the Atlantic maritime displays; a Victorian-era gardens park; the harbor boardwalk and shoreline; and we’ve especially-loved all of our local cuisine samplings.  Let’s take a moment here to mention that it is a lot of fun and very different to be around Cassie when she is multi-tasking her language skills; and we’ve experienced that a lot already both for work and with the sightseeing.  Canada’s official languages are English and French, but it is a multi-cultural country; there is a diverse, international tourism industry, and the First Nations’ tribes have many different languages too.  Cassie and Michael are developing First Nations partnerships with our charities and businesses across Canada; so we’ll get to see her impress all of them with her ability to understand and speak their own languages!  That’s true for everyone that experiences her talents – whether that is a tourist needing help with interpretation to business executives expecting to need to communicate exclusively in English with the Americans.  We’re closing in on our next stop; so let’s wrap this up with our world news report.

The Iran war ceasefire is apparently over – according to President Trump; we’re back to bombing Iran; they are retaliating; and the vaunted Memorandum of Understanding and peace talks are off again.  Yes, that could change again by tomorrow, but that doesn’t really matter; since that was all political theatre; and ‘our’ leaders have again proved that peace talks are really only used as a ruse to mask real plans for war and conquest.  There aren’t even talks actually happening for the Ukraine war – though President Trump still offers regular assertions for imminent deals with Russia that don’t happen while allowing our military to help Ukraine with targeting attacks into Russia and selling or giving them more weapons.  The latest Ukraine attacks on refineries and oil tanker ships will only add to the world oil and energy supplies issues; and the leaders currently hanging out in Turkey for the NATO summit are all delusional to continue plans to expand and build up armed forces and weapons while destroying their own economies with these never-ending wars.  As with the attacks on Iran; Russia is escalating their retaliations against Ukraine, and while we have no doubt that Ukraine and their western backers can keep an asymmetric war going indefinitely; nobody will win that war and they risk destroying far more than Ukraine and Russia in the process.  Here’s a hint – both sides can play that game, so just because Russia hasn’t attacked any of the countries colluding with Ukraine doesn’t mean that they won’t ever retaliate.

Finally, the NATO summit really has been all about more war; talking tough about Iran and Russia and any other country that doesn’t do whatever the neo-colonialists demand of them; and the answer to our world problems is not to spend trillions more on our collective militaries!  Since we’re in Canada, that includes their leaders and government; and that is truly insane; since their country would be impossible to defend from real, attacking enemies with such a comparatively-small population.  Yes, they’ve been a member of NATO since inception, but Canada used to be known for being pacifists and peacekeepers – whether entirely-true or not; so they should go back to those non-intervention policies or risk joining the club of western nations earning the hatred of the rest of the world.

Time is up for this report, since Michael is slowing down for one of the last road changes for our next stop; so we’re out of here and back to the real world fun and adventures.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - July 7, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 14^th Anniversary, Amy and Jared Spencer!

Our top news of the day is obviously our travel day from home to Halifax, Nova Scotia; we arrived by early afternoon; and we’ve had our first work stop between the airport and hotel.  Before we get to that news; let’s cover the rest of the story from yesterday.

The anniversary dinner was short for us after the work and kid-control help; our ball practices went well while we also got teased about missing the next couple of games while we’re away on this trip.  Our four best friends came with us to Cassie and Michael’s for the night; we hopped into the river to cool down and wash off the worst of the dirt from the play time; and then we had a visit with a small gang of parents and grandparents to spend a last bit of time with them before heading out this morning.  Showers were required after that; we helped with a round of laundry and last bit of clean-up around the house; and then we – the teens – wrapped up our Monday with a co-ed sofa sleepover.

We were all up very early; loaded into two vehicles for the drive to the airport with Mom giving four of us a ride while Cassie and Michael left their car in long-term parking – as usual.  There wasn’t Tai Chi anywhere; we took drinks and bakery treats along for the drive and breakfast; and our flight took off around six o’clock.  There was only one stop along the way to Halifax, so that worked for us; and we kept entertained on both flights.  Cassie and Michael had an extended passenger van rented and ready for us in Halifax; we cleared customs quickly without any issues; and we’ve already mentioned the first work stop.  Cassie and Michael had a tour and meeting with a fisheries company that has both boats and processing operations.  The six teens in our group have little or no experience with oceanic fishing or that kind of food processing, so the tour was awesome; and the scenery around the Halifax Harbor is amazing!

We’re currently on the way to our hotel and doing this update now because we still have a lot on the schedule for after we get checked in for the night – including a work dinner and another site visit this evening for a charity project.  The rest of that news can wait for our next update, and we’ll be at the hotel soon; so let’s do a quick world news report and then we’ll get back to the real life adventures.

The top news of the day is the start of the NATO summit in Turkey, and while there has been talk of peace; nobody believes that is actually happening when there is more talk of war in both the Middle East and Ukraine; and the President of Ukraine is there begging for more weapons and other aide to keep fighting with Russia.  While that meeting is going on, there have been more mass drone and missile strikes against both Russia and the Ukraine that are meant to affect the NATO meetings – and nothing will change because nobody wants to actually end the war.  We’ll hope that NATO doesn’t agree to expand the war in Ukraine, but it looks as though more support for Ukraine will be sent; and the battles will continue.

Let’s stop there, since Ethan and I want to stay happy and spend our time sharing our light with everyone around us in Halifax and Canada.  We’ll keep you posted on how that goes for us too, so stay tuned for that; and we’ll resume our amazing travel fun right now.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - July 6, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 13^th Anniversary, Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace!

Their special day wasn’t an official reason for his family’s visit to Witch Falls, but they’ve had fun with the story while linking the number thirteen with our magical hometown.  Before we get to the anniversary fun news; let’s cover the rest of our news of the day-so-far.

Aiden and I started our day with Tai Chi by the river with Cassie and Michael.  Ethan and Naomi chose to exercise on their own; and we did our own things for breakfast too.  Aiden went to the bakery for the rest of the morning while Ethan, Naomi, and I went to the lab; we all worked until lunchtime; and then we met up at our house for that meal; went for a swim; and then we split up to pack for our trip.

Ethan and I are ready to haul our luggage over to Cassie and Michael’s house now, and this update is early because we’ll be busy for the rest of the day with the anniversary dinner party, our ball practices, and our sleepover at Cassie and Michael’s house because we’ll be up early for the drive to the airport.  The rest of our news can wait for our next update; and that one will likely be live from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada!

We need to get going soon; so let’s go with a quick world news update.  For the Ukraine war, western leaders are denying a notable frontlines victory for Russia, but we were disgusted by reports that the Ukrainian leaders have refused to accept the bodies of their soldiers that have been killed in the battle for that key city.  There is no excuse for that decision; and it only hurts the loved ones of those fallen soldiers.  We do understand the callous reason for that refusal because if they accepted the dead; they’d also be on the hook for death benefits for the families; so it is much cheaper to list them as missing in action and pay nothing at all – including salaries.  The only news we want to mention from the Middle East is the funeral over the weekend for the Ayatollah; and that is because there were tens of millions of mourners and a large contingent of representatives from around the world.  We are not expecting that to lead to imminent peace, but we hope that our western leaders will see what was happening and think twice before resuming the fighting at a time when we are gaining far more enemies than friends on the world stage.

There are so many other stories that we could comment on and probably shouldn’t – so let’s include a couple of them just for fun!  We didn’t cover this over the weekend, but one of President Trump’s speeches caught our attention thanks to his comments about how communism is one of the biggest threats to our country as we celebrate two-hundred and fifty years.  That trope has been dangled in front of the masses for about as long as there has been communism; and we’ve been assured that it has been defeated a handful of times now too.  For the record, Ethan and I would not place communism anywhere on our list of most-serious dangers to our country and world, but we would include many of our current world leaders!  There was a report out of Ireland about their current turn at the European Union council presidency that has us wondering why any country would want to do that; since they are expecting that leadership term to cost them three-hundred million Euros of taxpayer money!  With a population of around five and a quarter million people, that is a lot of money; and we could think of better uses other than parties and conferences for useless politicians and their cling-ons.  We think that’s true for a large part of all things politick; and we admit to being biased on this topic.

We’re also going to be late if we don’t get going; so that’s all for this report.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - July 5, 2026

 

Ehlana and Aiden; Ethan and Naomi:

Congratulations, Diana and Kris Robinson – it’s a boy!

Welcome to your new hometown family, Andrew Robinson!

There will be stories for Drew’s birth, but we don’t think that the teens are responsible for sending Diana into labor during the church service at the park; and he’s a bit young yet for wanting to arrive in time for one of the buffets at the Inn!  We can report that food was sent to the clinic for the happy and tired parents; and Uncle Adam was the doctor on-call while Uncle Mark was busy with his visiting family.  We were not involved in the baby delivery services; so that’s all we have for that news.

As for our own adventures since the last report; the noon co-ed ball game was very wet with several delays and the game was shortened by an inning too as time ran out for the next games of the day.  Our Witch Falls Wild team earned their first win of the season over Sheldon’s Stampede, but the thirteen-to-nine score had more to do with the weather than amazing ball play.  Cassie and Miranda won the cheer squad title for the day too, but to be honest, that was mostly because the Stampede’s squad missed more of the game while trying to stay dry!  There was better weather for Zack and the Bakery Brigade game against Connor’s Commandos, but we didn’t watch much of that game and the crowds were definitely smaller as most park visitors wanted to enjoy the break from the rain and enjoy the play and food opportunities.  The Brigade won the game by a score of ten-to-eight; we caught the end of the game while being rounded up for the family-and-friends’ dinner; and we were put to work getting the food from the booths while others took care of the next-gen kids.  We stayed dry for that meal; there was a bit of rain during the dance; and then we had another weather break that allowed everyone to enjoy the fireworks show.

A bit of extra money and effort went into the fireworks for the two-hundred and fiftieth holiday, but we won’t suggest that our celebration rivaled the big city displays anywhere else in the country.  It was perfect for our little home, though, and the co-ed cuddle time for many of us was a bonus!  Rain was expected soon after the show; so everyone packed up quickly and headed out.  Ethan and I only had Naomi and Aiden with us when we came home with Mom, Dad, and our own weekend guests; we helped with all of the work including starting loads of laundry; and then we wrapped up our Fourth of July with more quality co-ed cuddle time, some teen chat fun, and music videos instead of a movie that we didn’t want to concentrate on at all after a very long day.  We still stayed up too-late; and only had time for a nap before needing to be up early again this morning.

Tai Chi was by the river and the rain had moved on by then; breakfast needed to be quick and easy for the teens in the house; and then we hurried to the park to set up for the church service.  We had time for warm-ups; moved on to entertaining the early arrivals with extra music they could sing along with; and then the service was awesome – including our musical contributions, the skits, readings, and Pastor John’s message.  We were on the crew to pack up after the service; we were the last to get home for lunch; and then our top afternoon adventure today was a trip to the Ridge River Ranch.  Our family had an entire block of trail rides and a corral adventure booked; we ended up with the group that included Mom and Dad but not Cassie and Michael; and Uncle Adam missed the ride because of the call to the clinic for delivery services!

While that ride was our play highlight of the day, I went with Aiden to the bakery after we got home and cleaned up; we helped out there until closing; and then went to the last buffet of the day at the Inn with his family.  Our family was there for that same buffet, but Ethan and Naomi were with her family – and the Ayres clan; so we didn’t hang out together for more than a couple of cameo visits.  I went home with Aiden too and Ethan’s with Naomi tonight; so this update is being written and the Drapers’ home while Ethan and Naomi are here via vid-chat and a telepathic link.  Aiden’s parents needed to head for bed soon after we got here, so Aiden and I watched a movie; and now we’re winding down fast toward nap time.  I am going to pretend that I don’t know that Naomi isn’t ready to let Ethan head off to sleep quite yet, but then her parents stayed up later; so they haven’t had much alone time yet.  Since some of us are tired, though, let’s do the world news report; and then wrap this up.

There were not any major holiday attacks yesterday, so that is a good news story for a change; and we are happy about that – especially when that also means that our favorite Dark Magi haters left us alone too.  We wish that good news could be reported out of Ukraine or the Middle East, but the fighting is escalating and expanding in Ukraine and Russia; and there are no signs that Israel has any intention of backing off from Lebanon, Syria, or anywhere else.  None of the leaders are showing any serious consideration for all of the people being killed, injured, and having their lives and property destroyed; and we’re heading beyond any hope of recovery in some places – especially where there are no people left to rebuild at all.

We do not want to wrap up this holiday weekend on that note; so let’s switch to happier thoughts.  None of our weekend guests headed home today, but many of them will be leaving tomorrow – except for Mark’s family and a few Johnson clan kids that will be staying for the week.  We aren’t going to be here for most of that visit because we head out on Tuesday with Cassie and Michael for their work trip to Canada.  Sophia and Aaron are coming with us too; and we are going to have an amazing work and explore adventure!  We’ll miss out on a lot of fun here at home too – including Brianna’s birthday on Wednesday, but that’s normal for Cassie and Michael now; and we’re just going to experience that from their side of those stories.  That does mean that we’ll need to pack tomorrow and we’re staying the night with them ahead of the early drive to the airport; so we are going to be busy again tomorrow.

Before we move on, let’s mention that Jayden was not planning on staying for a vacation this summer – he has a summer job with his Dad’s company; a current girlfriend; and no interest in staying here instead – not even for some extra time with Kaitlyn and Jeremy.  Summer jobs are an issue for more of our Johnson clan cousins too; so it is only the younger ones that are here and staying for one or two weeks.  They’d want to hang out with our younger cousins anyway, and we’d be working our own summer jobs if here; so this summer visit would have been very different for us anyway.  We’ll still pick the adventures with Cassie and Michael, and that’s a happy thought to end this update on; so that’s all for tonight.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - July 4, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 250^th birthday, America!

Happy Un-Independence Day, Mom and Cassie!

This is actually a rare morning update because Ethan and I stopped in at home to get changed after the parade and we need to head back to the park for the noon co-ed ball game and the rest of the holiday fun at the park.  The parade wasn’t a lot different from normal for the milestone celebration, and we got rained on a bit too, but we had fun too.  Ethan was with Naomi and the teen praise team for the parade while Aiden and I were with the school band, so that was different for us; and we got teased a bit too for the twin split-up that also doesn’t happen very often.  The weather this morning has been a mix of warm and wet, and the forecast is for more of the same through the rest of the day; so the holiday fun could get interesting depending on when the rain rolls through.  We’ll save those stories for our next report, but before we get back to our holiday adventures; let’s cover the rest of our news since the last update.

The family barbeque dinner at the Ayres’ home was amazing; and then we moved on to win our respective ball games last night.  Ethan and the Locusts won their game over the Wasps by a score of sixteen-to-eight – even without their favorite cheerleaders; and Naomi, Sophia, and I led our Glacier team held on for an eight-to-seven win over the Polar Vortex.

After the games, Ethan and I led our gang of teens home for our play and sleepover plans; some of us needed to hit the showers before moving on the video gaming and movies in the lounge and living room; and then we stayed up as late as expected with all of the teen fun that did not include any co-ed naps.  While Naomi, Sophia, and I had some fun teasing some of the visiting girls about their appreciation for our boyfriends, we can’t fault them for their taste in guys; and actually like Uncle Mark’s nieces too.  All of his nieces and nephews are smart and confident; and most of them expect to have futures in medicine to follow the family tradition.  We don’t think about that much for Caleb and Faith – or Zack and Brianna, but then that has a lot to do with not being able to picture Zack as a future doctor without laughing!

After the short naps we eventually had early this morning; we were up for Tai Chi by the river; breakfast was a blast of work and food fun as we juggled getting everyone fed and ready for the day and then headed to the school to get ready for the parade.  Ethan and I split up for that for obvious reasons; had our respective warm-ups; and there was one blast of showers before the parade started that left us a bit damp as we eventually hit the road and the parade route.  We’ve already mentioned the rain during the parade, but we were prepared for that.  Ethan and Naomi had the bigger challenge to keep electronics dry, but then everyone in the school band will need to clean their instruments after they got wet while we played our way through the rain.  For the record, we did not change up our music list for anything rain-related, but that would have been fun if we had tried that kind of mash-up like we’ve done for our football team cheer squad!

That brings us up to now, and we really do need to get going; so let’s wrap this up.  Instead of offering a limited world news report; let’s save that for a weekend update.  Ditto that for holiday celebrations stories from around our country that we hope will all be happy without any horror stories.  While we get out of here, I am also now going to hope that I didn’t jinx anything with that last comment – especially here at home!  Stay tuned; and we’ll have all of those stories for you sometime tomorrow.

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