Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - August 11, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 14^th Anniversary, Rob and Trish Johnson!

We wouldn’t have been helping with that celebration even if we’d been home today, but we hope that their families and friends are helping to make her day special!  While on that thought, we rarely mention the In-law families for the Johnson clan, but Trish does have a family too; and yes, they do actually spend time with them fairly-frequently too.

Family was part of our adventures today – Uncle Mark’s family.  As a reminder, pretty much all of the adult members of his family are doctors including one Psychologist and one medical researcher; so they all still worked at least part of today – even if that was only doing rounds and a few appointments before being able to spend time with us later today.  The three older teens all have summer jobs too; so we only spent extra time with Julian Everett and Noel McKinley.  Kellum and Colleen McKinley and Noah Everett joined us – and their parents and grandparents – for dinner and an evening sightseeing cruise; and that was a highlight of our fun for today too.

Cassie and Michael had some work meetings today too, and we went along for one of them and took care of some chores for two more that included getting laundry done and getting ready for the flight home on Thursday.  The play time with Julian and Noel included some quality time on a beach and in the water, and while a mid-seventies high seems cool to us compared to home; it was sunny all day; and that was enough to make sure that everything we did outdoors was comfortable.  Dinner was on the waterfront ahead of that cruise; the views from the water of the islands, city, and Pacific sunset were spectacular.  Naomi wants me to mention that she would like Colleen and Noel more if they hadn’t liked Ethan quite so much, but while Kellum looked at us as too-young for that sort of thing; Julian and Noah liked Naomi, Sophia, and I a lot too.  For the record, Colleen liked Aaron quite a lot too; and I am going to keep pretending that both girls liked Aiden quite a lot too – especially since they also love his parents’ bakery!  Moving along, after the cruise, we came back to our hotel without the Everett clan; the teens in our group went for a swim and a follow-up snack break that Cassie and Michael joined us for after dealing with some work; and now we’re winding down toward nap time paired up for some quality co-ed cuddle and teen chat time.

While we’ve been having a blast here, at home it was hot with another triple-digit high and sun most of the time except for a quick blast of a thunderstorm that rolled through fast and was gone.  We know that it didn’t get in the way of the normal Tuesday baseball and Pizzeria pizza picnic dinner at the park; Brianna has reported to us that some of our cousins and friends went canoeing and then decided not to go all the way to the whirlpool because of the heat; and they returned home and had a lazy afternoon in and near the river or indoors when they wanted to cool down.  We are looking forward to being home again on Thursday; and we are trying not to feel insulted about Brianna being disappointed that Cassie and Michael won’t be home right away with us.  We haven’t mentioned that, but they have a college friends’ wedding this weekend – for Vic and Chloe; so they’ll be going there from our home airport while Mom will be picking us up at the airport.  She will have help and another driver for that to handle all of our luggage and six teens; and Mom will have fresh luggage for Cassie and Michael so they’ll have formal wear for the wedding.  We’ll have more on that on Thursday, but that’s all we have for our story today; so we’ll get to the world news and then move on to nap time soon.

Let’s begin this world news update with the latest earthquake disaster – this one in Colombia.  As with Venezuela, a lot of buildings collapsed; the death toll and injuries totals continue to rise; and the earthquake also set off one of the volcanoes and that added to the danger and chaos.  We aren’t personally helping with getting aid through our charities to the region, but Mom and Cassie are.  We also want to add that this creates new challenges for our charities because they were already being used in the region to get help to Venezuela; there is still a lot of need there; and now we need even more for the people of Colombia.

We wish that our world leaders would think more about the real challenges we have without the wars that are so pointless, but they don’t do that and won’t change; so nothing changes for the better in the Middle East or Ukraine.  Peace is still off for Iran, but war isn’t on there yet either; so the rhetoric and threats battles continue while the ‘smaller’ atrocities continue in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen.  The Ukraine war continues at the same high level of front lines fighting and missile and drone exchanges that are far more-damaging for Ukraine due to the lack of air defenses.  Their leaders – and people – should be terrified about what the coming winter, and while three or four more months might seem like a long time away when every day is a horror; it will be much worse come winter with no heat or electricity or fuel or food – especially for the troops on wherever the front lines will be by November or December.  The outcome of that war is inevitable unless even-worse options happen like expanding the war into the rest of Europe; so we continue to assert that taking a bad deal now will be better for Ukraine than fighting on to total defeat.

As usual, we’ve had enough of the bad news, and the co-ed cuddle time will be happier; so we’re out of here and back to that last blast of quiet fun with our favorite cuddle buddies and best friends.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - August 10, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

We’re back!

Okay, we’re only back in the United States and just recently cleared the border and customs, but we didn’t have any issues there thanks to Cassie’s extreme organization; and ‘our’ customs agent even seemed to be happy to welcome us home!  I’ll add that she also appreciated Michael a lot, but we kept our mouths shut; and she did not choose to take him aside for a more-personal search or interrogation!

As for the rest of our adventures so far today, we were up early in Vancouver for Tai Chi by the hotel pool; we followed that up with a swim; and then we packed up and checked out before going out to a working breakfast and the rest of our work and play that kept us busy until mid-afternoon when we hit the road for the border.  That fun included a work lunch, two site visits for a port transportation project and a sustainable resources project that experiments with reviving damaged ecosystems specializing in coastal systems that interconnect marine and land bio-systems.  The teens in our group skipped one financial meeting because it was boring; and we visited a museum instead.

Our trip to Seattle has been fun – even with the minor blip passing through customs.  For the record, Cassie did not need to Confund the border guards or customs agents; we did not get picked for an enhanced search of ourselves or our rental van; and we were on the road again within a half-hour – including dealing with paying the duties for a handful of purchases that were not included in allowed limits for things like souvenirs.  We’re writing this update now because we have time before we get to Seattle; and we expect to be busy for the rest of the day from going for a late dinner to some sunset sightseeing.  Let’s also note that Mother Nature likes us, since we are going to be in Seattle; and the weather is sunny and warm!  Try not to be shocked, but despite perceptions thanks to Hollywood and many fiction authors; it apparently doesn’t rain every day in Seattle!  The rest of our news for today can wait; so let’s move on to news from home and then our world news of the day.

The top story from home was the weather.  After some thunderstorms overnight, their morning low was our ‘warm’ high around here; and then they soared into triple digits with a mix of sun and clouds.  Thanks to that heat, our cousins and friends apparently opted for a lazy do-nothing day – when that was an option; and then our friends with jobs on farms or other outdoor work had to suffer through the heat and hard work.  We’d feel guilty about that, but then we’re having too much fun, and if we’d been home; our work happens in my lab or Ethan’s archives where we get to stay cool.  Okay, we sometimes get stuck working in that kind of heat on yard chores, but we also try to do that work when we can when it is cooler.  Mom and Dad stayed cool today; and we are not going to comment on why they don’t seem to have much to tell us about their kid-free adventures.  Let’s just hope that they won’t end up with any belated souvenirs from our trip!

That might be even-scarier than the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine!  No, that isn’t serious or true, but we don’t need to let facts get in the way of the fun.  The actual news from the Middle East is that peace is off today; Iran and President Trump are now demanding war reparations as a condition for opening the strait, and demands for an end to the war and blockade of the strait are hardening on both sides.  We won’t try to guess on whether that will lead to more war or a flop back toward diplomacy that is still mostly theatre and no substance.  While that gets a lot of media attention, Israel continues to ignore their supposed deals with Lebanon and Hamas while bombing and killing and destroying targets in both places.  Saudi Arabia must be regretting their attack on Yemen; since the Houthis appear to be taking the war to the Saudis and their allies in Yemen; they are still blockading their strait and targeting Saudi ships.  We’re not getting much news from the Iraqi side of the fight with Saudi Arabia after they targeted Iraqi militant groups, but that will continue to be a problem for them – and likely for American forces too.

While we’re earning new enemies in the region every day – and so are our allies; Ukraine appears to be getting all of the help they need from their western allies and backers to help them fight to the last citizen!  At the rate they’re going, that plan is going to succeed sooner instead of later; and the reports out of Odessa and Kiev are getting uglier every day as Russian forces pound those cities every day and there appears to be no air defenses left – making those attacks nearly one-hundred percent successful.  Russia has definitely taken their fight to a new level now, and they are obviously looking to starve the Ukrainian armed forces of all supplies from weapons and command to fuel and food.  Predicting how long that will take is impossible without the inside information, but the amount of damage is accelerating; and is unsustainable for Ukraine.  We know that the biggest risk that would come with a collapse in Ukraine would be a western decision to escalate to a wider war and get involved directly, but we’ll hope that doesn’t happen; and pray that somebody in Ukraine will get a clue and find a way to take control of their government and military and then take whatever deal they can get from Russia before the only choice left is total surrender.

That’s enough for this update.  We’ll be in Seattle soon, and while Cassie and Michael are going to do some follow-up work from their last visit; we’ll also spend most of the time playing and spending some time with Uncle Mark’s family.  Stay tuned for those stories; and we’ll get back to living the adventures.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - August 9, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

This update is coming to you live from the ferry we’re on heading back to the mainland and Vancouver from Victoria and Vancouver Island!  We’ve had an awesome work and play day on the island with a mix of work that included a boat ride with a partner marine biology and conservation group that is a mix of scientific grant and charity funding.  No, I am not looking to bio-engineer our way back to having Megalodons, but don’t let that keep you from making those types of jokes!  The play time on, in, and near the water were highlights of our day, but we loved the work related to First Nations and island conservation projects and partnerships; and there was a bit of history learning that Ethan loved the most, but was great for the rest of us too.  The evening ferry ride that heads east instead of west feels different – and not just because we’re down to hours left in Canada before we head back to the United States tomorrow.  The sunset reflecting on Vancouver and the mountains ahead of us is awe-inspiring; and yet another experience that we are very glad to have perfect memories for to keep these experiences available to replay anytime!

We wish that the rest of the world could have this much love and joy in their lives, but the world news is far from full of roses and puppies.  Ukraine got hit hard again with Russian missile and drone attacks on Odessa, Kiev, and beyond; they don’t seem to have any air defenses left; so those Russian attacks are devastating when everything gets through to targets.  That’s a problem on the front lines too, since the Russian air force can now bring in close air support without serious danger to jets or attack helicopters; and that is decimating the Ukrainian forces.  The western and Ukrainian leaders continue with their meetings, speeches, and promises that all mean nothing while the country is destroyed and their people are killed; and nothing changes except that life gets worse for the people on the ground.  There are reports about Turkey looking to both get Russia to end the blockade of the Ukrainian ports while also potentially closing their Black Sea strait access to Russian ships.  That isn’t going to happen without major concessions to Russia; and Turkey’s leaders will join the club of insane leaders if they put a naval blockade on Russia.

There is a Middle East story that involves Turkey too – a NATO-like defense pact that they’ve made with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia that is aimed at containing Iran, but is also insane; since now they are adding in a nuclear weapons power – if a comparatively-minor one – into the mix.  Maybe that’s what the major world leaders want – for Pakistan to nuke Iran so they can take the blame.  That is really dark, but then that’s true for everything going on around both wars.  Israel continues to break the Lebanon truce; there doesn’t actually appear to be any deal for Gaza or the West Bank as President Trump claimed; and the battles roll on between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis – and probably with the Iraqi militias too.

If all of that wasn’t enough, China has already retaliated to new trade tariff and sanctions restrictions placed on the by our country, and now, in addition to rare earth minerals restrictions; they’ve added licensing restrictions on drone components that will restrict sales for any military purposes.  There are sure to be work-arounds for that, but it will disrupt supply chains in the near to mid-term; and the combination could make production some high-tech weapons more challenging for western countries.  That is bad news when ‘our’ stockpiles of those weapons are being used up in those wars.

As we wrap this up, we want to point out that these new alliances and trade provocations are setting things up for wider wars; and we can only hope that our world leaders will collectively step back from the brink they are hurtling us all toward before it is too late.  We don’t expect peace to break out between right now and our next update; so that’s all we have for today.  Stay tuned; since our next report will be coming at you live from our own country and Seattle!  That might sound more-impressive than it is; since we’re only a few hours away from Seattle; and we actually cross the maritime border in and out of American territorial waters on this ferry ride due to a strange little quirk of how these international borders between our countries was done.  No, we do not have to deal with customs for that little cross-border incursion, but that would be funny if there were customs stations or maybe boats to do checks at just for spending a few minutes in those ‘American’ waters!

We obviously need to stop this update now to avoid more silliness; so we are out of here and back to enjoying the boat ride and amazing scenery!

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

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 6^th Anniversary, Sally and Joshua Parker!

Since our last update, we made it to the last ferry of the day to Victoria; that ride was a bit less than two hours; and the twilight-night crossing was amazing!  We’ll also mention here that we think it is a bit weird for the city of Vancouver to be on the mainland of British Columbia while the Capital, Victoria, is on Vancouver Island.  As Americans, we can’t say much about that; since our city of Washington is on the other side of the country from Washington State!  Nobody else in the world would be shocked to find out that our leaders are geographically-challenged; since we prove that over and over again! ;^)

We were late getting to our hotel and rooms; didn’t stay up for long once there; and still only managed a handful of hours of sleep.  This is an early update because we’ve finished our work and sightseeing in Victoria for the day; and now we’re heading out for some work and play elsewhere on the island.  The transit time gives us the chance to write this report; and we expect to be busy for the rest of the day.  The first thing we want to mention about our day-so-far is that the weather is awesome!  It is sunny; the high is going to reach the mid-eighties; and the ocean and channel and water views are incredible!

Cassie and Michael’s work here is a mixed bag of transportation and environmental conservation projects; there will be one provincial government related meeting tomorrow; and we are helping to develop sustainable communities that are small-scale for the near future and hopefully scalable in the long-term.  For the record, our ideas for that are not the same as we see promoted by the rich and powerful; since we focus on all of the people in each community and that makes each project unique while also working toward transferrable good ideas.

Our sightseeing so far today has mostly been cameo moments, but we’ll do more for the rest of the day; and most of our fun will include seaside and water play.  We’ll share those stories with you tomorrow; since we’re also going to put our tech away – or most of it – for the rest of the day and focus on our adventures out here in the real world.

Back at home, thanks to the time change, we already know that Brianna pitched another no-hitter to help her Rebels team to the six-zero win over the Scions this morning.  Leah and Hailey just finished helping their Mist team to a much-closer, thirteen-to-eleven win over the Fog; and those are two more reasons that Naomi, Sophia, and I are going to get razzed about our team’s loss last night after we get home!  We’ve missed more chores again today, but Cassie and Michael are going to miss out on the anniversary party for their friends tonight; and that’s going to be a barbeque and barn dance that will start after the farm work is wrapped up for the day.  That just leaves the world news update before we move on; so let’s make that quick and wrap this up.

I want to start with a story that won’t really get any news coverage.  The Lake Mead reservoir at the Hoover Dam hit a new low water level, and while we are not getting on any bandwagons because of that; we do take note of changes that can affect availability for fresh water for millions of people.  While that could be a future problem for the people downstream of the reservoir; it is one of the signs of growing water resources constraints that are going to have a growing impact on people around the world – especially when limited supplies lead to new conflicts.

As for the top two wars in the world, claims of imminent deals in the Middle East continue without any actual changes on the ground – and the deals that have been made have all be broken anyway; so this won’t likely be different even if yet another deal does get signed.  There are no deals even being discussed for the Ukraine war, and while Ukrainian and western leaders still hype their own benevolence by offering a ceasefire deal to Russia; everyone knows that isn’t going to happen only to allow Ukraine time to re-arm and re-build their army; and it is no better than the same deals they’ve been offering for more than four years that Russia has rejected every time.  While there is no diplomacy; the bombings continue on both sides; the front lines fighting is ugly and desperate for the Ukrainians; and every day the costs of war are getting worse for everyone involved.

We’re going to stop there – mostly because we’re closing in on our next destination and need to get back to the fun now.  The countdown feels on to our return home, but we still have the rest of this weekend here on the island and then a work day on Monday in Vancouver before we head back to the United States; so we will enjoy the adventures and keep you posted on those stories along the way.

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

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 5^th Anniversary, Caleb and Erica Palmer!

This update is coming to you while we’re on the road this evening from Whistler to the provincial Capital of British Columbia, Victoria.  Our final day in the Canadian Rockies has been amazing, and along with the work stops; we checked out some of the top natural wonders in and around Whistler; ranging from an art museum to bear watching and a zip line.  That was a lot to pack into one day and the total drive time to Victoria will be around five hours plus cameo sightseeing stops, but the views heading out of the mountains and toward the Pacific Ocean with the sunset ahead of us are going to be amazing too!  That part of our story and the personal news for the rest of our night can wait for our next update.

While we’ve been having an amazing, sunny, and fairly-hot day here, we didn’t miss out on a lot back at home – though Cassie and Michael – and Sophia and Aaron – likely would have been at the anniversary dinner and party for Caleb and Erica.  They’ve had a hotter day, but also got a bit of rain; and it would have been a chores day for us if we’d been home.  Thanks to the time change, we can report that Naomi, Sophia, and I are getting blamed for our team’s loss tonight in their game against the Vortex.  We’ll deal with the teasing about that, but for the record, they only lost by two runs; and the hot weather and a rain shower might have had more to do with that difference in scoring than our ability to be there to contribute!  Cassie and the guys in the van with us aren’t buying that line when we all know that we’re the three best players on our team; so let’s just stop there and move on with the world news update.

Let’s begin with a story that might prove to be an actual problem in the future thanks to the precedent related to the Ukraine war but out of Sweden.  They pirated a Russian ship, and then their courts ‘awarded’ it to the Ukrainian government.  The trends toward piracy by European and American navies has been stupid, but now the courts in those countries are getting involved and trying to legitimize those thefts; and that is going to end badly for everyone.  If that isn’t a problem for ‘our’ side; then we surely can’t complain if Russia, China, India, or any other country in the world does the same to our commercial ships!  Do we really want the world to go back to the days of actual piracy risks and the need for naval escorts and security forces to protect shipping?

While politicians and media pundits have been fighting over stories about western weapons shortages and President Trump added threats against ‘leakers’ along with the never-ending threats against Iran; the Middle East tensions remain high as Israel continues attacks in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon; and the Saudi-Houthi fighting continues and intensifies too.  Iran and America might not be exchanging missiles and drones again yet, but those tensions remain high; we still don’t see a deal for the Strait of Hormuz not just being agreed to but actually implemented; and there is very little shipping traffic happening in either strait.  That will continue to deepen the economic consequences for the world – especially as reserves dwindle and actual access to petroleum-based products becomes a bigger issue than price.  News flash to our leaders – you can’t sell what you don’t have!

European leaders continue their insanity far beyond piracy and theft – though they continue to steal interest accumulation from frozen Russian assets and give them away to their own military industrial complex – we mean Ukraine!  The immigrant crisis in that Spanish enclave continues, but that is just a distraction for the people that is self-inflicted due to foreign policies in Africa, the Middle East, and elsewhere.  They really are pushing hard to get Ukraine to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian, and we can add in a bit of cynicism here when writing about ongoing efforts to send all fighting-age Ukrainian men back to Ukraine to die for the cause too while keeping the young Ukrainian women.  That is more than a little dark, but possibly-true; and not even as-terrible as it is to intentionally send men to die on the front lines of a war that Ukraine shouldn’t have fought at all.

Finally, for this report, the tariff war with China is on again; our leaders just passed another Russian sanctions bill that really targets China and India; and the battle is on again as tariffs or controls are added for everything from rare earth minerals to tech of all kinds and general consumer products.  Our leaders really should crack a history book or three, since trade wars, blockades, and other economic aggressions – like piracy – often lead to hot wars.  Since our side isn’t doing very well with the wars already in progress; maybe we shouldn’t risk starting one with China and its allies!  They should also keep in mind that allies sometimes switch sides – not to mention that many of our allies also have large segments of their populations that hate us; so we should seriously think about reversing course before the fighting around the world really does escalate into broader conflicts or wars!

Yeah, we don’t trust our leaders to have that much sense either, but let’s stop there.  We want to enjoy the rest of this drive to the west coast; the scenery is stunning; and the co-ed cuddle time is really great too – at least for three out of four of the couples in this van!  Stay tuned, since our final weekend in Canada should be awesome too – even with all of the work that Cassie and Michael have booked in Victoria and Vancouver!

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