Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - July 13, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Canada is officially a bilingual country, but French is the primary language in Quebec; so Cassie and Michael did most of their business today in French with Cassie handling all needed translations and interpretations.  We – the teens in our group – had fun with the language barriers; and Ethan and I even helped out a bit thanks to knowing the language and overhearing some comments at one business meeting and passing that info on to Cassie.  While we’ve fit in a bit of sightseeing today, there was more work to do; so we spent most of our time in meetings and site visits and multi-tasked meals while most of the play time was done through a series of cameo moments.  This is not an in-transit update because we’re staying a second night in Quebec City and will get up early for the drive to Trois-Rivieres.  We’re actually still doing some work now – though that is laundry chores and not very exciting.  The guys have started making jokes about traveling like the fictional Jack Reacher character from the books, movies, and series and just buying new clothes every few days and tossing the old ones out.  They might like that part of the story, but I’ll guess that they wouldn’t like the idea of walking across Canada and hitchhiking or taking buses from place to place.  They would definitely be up for the crime fighting, but as I write that; now I’m hoping that we aren’t about to be jinxed! ;^)

We do need to get this work done and then get some sleep so we can be up early for that drive time before dawn; so let’s wrap this up with the world news report.  The Iran war is definitely back on – according to President Trump; he is also claiming that the United States is going to take over control of the Strait of Hormuz; and Iran is fighting back just as they’ve always promised.  None of that is good news, but also completely expected; since we didn’t think that our own leaders were actually serious about a true peace deal that would be anything short of a complete surrender from Iran.  That isn’t going to happen; so the Middle East will continue to go up in flames while the rest of the world suffers the economic fallout.  In Ukraine, the war is going to escalate again soon if the rhetoric is any indication on both sides.  While the frontlines continue to collapse and the Ukrainian forces are decimated; their leaders focus on media ‘wins’ and drone strikes meant to produce sound bytes for points while Russia’s attacks are meant to lead to victory as they methodically demolish the country for as long as needed until they achieve their goals.  Just for a reminder, those goals are safety for the ethnic Russians that are mostly in eastern Ukraine; no NATO in whatever ends up being left of Ukraine; and security for their own country and people.  That is very different from what Europe wants; since their goals are to destroy Russia and take control of their vast natural resources – aka neo-colonialism.

That’s enough for tonight.  We’ve had a good day; our work and play adventures are amazing and we are so glad to do this with Cassie, Michael, and our four best friends; and we’ll have more stories for you again sometime tomorrow.  Stay tuned for that while we get back to the laundry chores and hanging out with our friends – or just flip the digital page and read what we’ll write about next once we’ve lived the adventures.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - July 12, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

This is another drive-time update; and we’re moving from Grand Falls, New Brunswick to Quebec City, Quebec – the Capital of that Province.  Maybe we should have mentioned that kind of detail before getting to our fourth province; since Halifax, Charlottetown, and Fredericton are also Provincial Capitals.  Quebec is one of the largest provinces, so to be fair to ourselves; there is more government and political power in Quebec – and Ontario.  We aren’t there yet; and those stories will wait for after we live the adventures.  As for our time in Grand Falls; let’s start by conceding that their natural wonder is bigger and better than our hometown falls!  They do not have a witch statue, but they do have a hydroelectric dam to go with the falls that are definitely bigger and better than ours; and they have an amazing gorge with spectacular views.  While we fit in a total of three work events, we also tried out the zip line over the gorge; we toured around the dam, falls, and gorge; the local art gallery was interesting; and we tried out the local go-carts.  Add in more amazing local cuisine and we’ve really enjoyed our time in Grand Falls.  I’ll also add that it is a larger town than Witch Falls – about four times the size, but it still felt like a small town with summer tourism like we have; so it felt a bit like home for us as well as being culturally-different and interesting.  Finally, as we leave this chapter of our travel adventures behind, we went to a church service; and have decided not to offer details beyond stating that not all churches or Christian organizations are the same as our church at home; and we really don’t want to add anything else about that experience.

While we’ve been busy and having fun, we have also missed a good day at home.  The Ayres are going to be hosting a second, smaller camping night in their back yard tonight; and we should add to that story that there are still Johnson clan cousins staying for a second week; so bonus adventures are ongoing too.  Today, along with the morning church service, their top adventure was a group canoe trip to the whirlpool; they took a picnic lunch along; and are at the late buffet at the Inn as we write this update.  We’ve been told by cousins that they are going to have a campfire tonight to go along with the camping; and that works for another comment to offer about our trip.

Cassie and Michael have had a wide range of accommodations for their work trips, but with six teens along for this adventure; we are staying in nice, but comparatively-modest hotels or other options when available – like bed-and-breakfasts or cabins or house rentals.  We considered adding in some camping, but that requires a fair bit of time for set-up and tear-down each day; and Cassie and Michael didn’t have that kind of extra time for their work plans schedule.  Most of our stops are already set up; so we’re just going along with the plan; and enjoying all of the bonus co-ed sleepovers! ;^)

The drive time to Quebec City is around four hours, but we are going to stop soon for a late dinner; so we’ll be closer to five hours of travel time and we won’t have the opportunity for much sightseeing tonight once there.  We can save those stories for tomorrow too; so let’s get to the world news update while we have time before that food stop.

The United States continues to bomb Iran; the retaliations include closing the Strait of Hormuz again; and peace talks in the Middle East are definitely off again.  That won’t change because of our next story; and we’ll play nice because we should do that while family and friends are mourning the passing of Senator Lindsey Graham last night.  We might have more to write about for this in the future, but not this weekend or soon because that would just be wrong.

Moving on to the Ukraine war, the pressures on the front lines for the Ukrainian forces is horrific and getting worse; the last significantly-fortified towns and cities are falling; and the troops are often being ordered to stay and fight to the death instead of retreating and regrouping.  Russia is continuing expanded missile and drone attacks around the rest of Ukraine; there is a definite push to deprive the Ukraine military of energy and the capacity to build new weapons; and the suffering for the people stuck in the middle of the war will continue and worsen while the leaders continue to choose war over peace.  That is sounding repetitive to us, and it is, but we also don’t want to skip the reports; since both wars are going to have long-term consequences for the world.

Finally, since we are in Canada, there was another shooting in the country – this time in Toronto, Ontario at a salsa street festival where a gunman killed two people and injured at least six others.  We’ll be visiting Toronto for one of our stops in Ontario, but we aren’t looking at that with worry; and the bigger story is about the growing number of similar attacks across the country that proves our own journal commentaries about the increase in unrest and violence that is happening worldwide as people get desperate and furious and lash out.  We’ll be doing what we can to share a bit of light and love while we’re in Canada; and maybe that’ll be enough to make a difference!

That’s all we have for now and we are going to stop for that food break soon; so we’re going to wrap this up and get back to the travel adventures we’ll write about again tomorrow.

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

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

We are having an awesome day-so-far in New Brunswick; the weather has been great; and we’ve done more sightseeing than work.  Now we’re making our way from the Fredericton area to Grand Falls.  We’ll let you know if those falls are grand compared to our little river falls at home, but we also hope that it will feel a bit like home too while we’re visiting the area!  Our entertainment highlight of the day was a visit to the King’s Landing living history site, and while it was different in a lot of ways too; it did remind us of the historic sites we visited while in Washington for our Grade Eight trip.  Since our last update, we also checked out a park and walking bridge over the St. John’s River; Cassie and Michael were the guests of honor at a charity fundraiser at an art gallery where we also bought some local art for inventory at our own local gallery and stores.  We were out late last night; up early this morning; and I will not name the teens in the van that might be having naps right now as Ethan and I are writing this report while we have the time to do that!

We are missing a baseball day at home – including the game coming up tonight that Ethan, Aiden, and Aaron will get blamed for if their team loses against the Spinners!  We can report that Brianna pitched a no-hitter and led the Rebels to an eight-to-zero win.  Faith had a great game too, but Brianna is going to be the team star this season if she keeps pitching like that!  Leah, Hailey, and the Med Center Mist had a big win too – though pitching wasn’t the strong point in the fifteen-to-nine victory over the Fog.  The evening game news will have to wait for our next report, but we do know that there is going to be a family-and-friends’ barbeque dinner at the Ayres’ house; and Leah and Sebastian are hosting a teen-kid camping night that will also include some next-gen babysitting for the parents that will be going out to the pub after the evening baseball.  Brianna advised us that they are going with outdoor movies for the after-dark entertainment; and the girls are hoping that the boys will play nice – especially while the parents are away.

We also missed out on the yard chores today – or earlier in the week for work that got done ahead of the weekend.  Since we were the usual volunteers for the chores at Cassie and Michael’s house when they are away on their work trips; let’s mention that we have other cousins helping with that extra work – and at our house too; they are getting paid more; and we’re okay with that because we do get paid fairly well for our part-time jobs at the lab – and we’re being overpaid for our work on this trip!  That’s enough of our own news, so let’s do a quick world news update and then we’ll get back to the travel time fun in the van – or maybe join in on the nap time.

There has both been peace on and off in the Middle East, but that is all nonsense, and the ultimatum President Trump demanded of Iran is a non-starter; he must know that; and he is again backing us into a war corner that will not end well for the world.  There have also been reports of Iran preparing for a major retaliation strike on more than military targets; so the region is waiting to see whether that will happen or not.  The Ukraine war remains ugly; the Ukrainian forces on the front lines are being decimated pointlessly; and the Russian missile and drone attacks across Kiev are continuing to devastate all-new targets aimed at destroying infrastructure needed for the Ukrainian military to continue the fighting.  That now includes gas stations; rail systems; and all energy systems.  Russia is also more-seriously targeting military training camps; foreign fighters; and manufacturing partnerships with any link to building weapons – including against some very large corporations like Samsung.  No news comes out about that in the west, but it is a safe bet that those companies will need to assess that new risk before investing in Ukraine at all in the near future.

Finally, for today, we want to mention that while risk is currently still off for commodities related to oil and energy; the dangers continue anyway.  Petroleum reserves continue to be drained; there was a story out today about China stopping all exports of helium because they need to keep all current production for their own industries; and there are already whispers of warnings in Europe as storage is not being re-filled as normal to prepare for winter energy needs that are so much higher than daily production during the winter months.  Sure, their leaders might not be thinking of cold while also dealing with heat waves and thousands of heat-related deaths, but they should be preparing for the future instead of reacting after the disasters happen.  Prices won’t matter at all if there isn’t enough energy to sell to keep people warm and alive in a modern society where most people don’t even have access to other heating options like wood-burning fireplaces or stoves or other low-tech heating.  Yes, we’re thinking of the people first, but that applies to manufacturing and the economy both for resource scarcity and costs for doing business.  Let’s hope that Europe doesn’t get to experience life imitating art like in A Christmas Carol – though we might enjoy pictures of European leaders trying to keep their hands warm over a candle on their desks because the heat is off and there is no coal to put into a non-existent stove because they’ve banned all of that to save the environment!

I am obviously past-ready to wrap this up while those silly thoughts roll on!  We will be staying in the Grand Falls area tonight and will do some work and sightseeing too, but we can share those stories with you tomorrow; so stay tuned for that while we get back to another drive time scene along the way to our next travel adventure.

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

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 25^th Birthday, Adaira Reynolds!

We don’t actually have a lot of news to offer so far today, but then this is an early update while we have a little break between adventures and work.  Today, it feels a bit strange to us to be visiting our third Province so far on this trip.  Yes, these are also the three smallest Provinces, but the Maritimes region also has some of the longest colonial history in North America.  Ethan is having the most fun with the ongoing, daily history lessons that are included in a lot of our sightseeing, but everything is special getting to do this with our best friends, Cassie, and Michael.

As for today-so-far, we’re getting similar weather to home with a high that will flirt with ninety and some off-and-on rain.  The weather isn’t getting in the way of our work or fun.  We’ve had two meetings and a working lunch already today; we’re in-transit to a work site visit now as we’re writing this; and we’re booked for the rest of the day with a mix of work and sightseeing and play time.  We’ll share at least some of those stories with you tomorrow, but we don’t plan on doing any of this kind of computing for the rest of our Friday.  Along with our work this morning, our top sightseeing stop was Science East – a science center housed in a historic jail.  We didn’t have time to explore everything, but had fun with what we did do and see; and that will be what a lot of our sightseeing will be like as we fit in that fun with the work that actually makes the trip possible!

The rest of our own news can wait for the next report.  On the world news front, the NATO summit has wrapped up; a lot of money was spent to put on that show; and nothing good came out of the meetings.  As always, the leaders talked big; changed nothing; and did more harm than good while trying to show off for the media and masses.  For the record, most people in the world don’t care at all about these meetings because everyone knows it is just theatre while they also hope that no harm will be done by those leaders.  That’s a hope too far, but we’re optimists; and will hope for the best too.  We aren’t getting that in the Middle East or Ukraine today, but then we haven’t spent as much time looking up the world news; so maybe we’ve just missed out on the good news – or not.  Instead of looking into the war stories; let’s switch a bit and write about economics from the perspective of American visitors to Canada.  The exchange rate for money is certainly in our favor because the current rate is around seventy-one cents to buy each Canadian dollar – though let’s also add that our family businesses have significant financial interests denominated in Canadian dollars already.  Costs of everything can get challenging to calculate for a lot of reasons that start with measurements in metric instead of U.S. Standards, but we’re having fun with the math – and the shopping too!  Since I did suggest writing about this instead of the wars, though, the example I’ll use for expenses will be fuel.  Michael needed to fill the van this morning, and local prices for gasoline is around $1.75 per liter.  That translates to around $4.90 per U.S. gallon – and around $1.50 per gallon higher than at home.  As with the United States, prices in Canada have a wide range from high to low across the country, so that difference isn’t shocking to us, but it is something that a lot of Americans don’t think about that does have a significant impact on all lower-income people in those higher-price regions.  That doesn’t mean that everything is more expensive here, but since fuel is needed to transport everything; it does have a major impact on other regional prices.

That’s all we have time for today since we’re nearly to our next work stop; so we’ll hope that you’re ‘now’ is awesome too as we get back to living the adventures we’ll write about tomorrow.

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

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 5^th Birthday, Jessica Warren!

Happy 26^th Birthday, Elliott Roberts!

It is currently late-evening and we are on the road from Charlottetown to Fredericton.  We’ve had a long day already, but we caught a theatre show that was worth the trade-off for the late drive time.  Before we get to our own news of the day, though, let’s cover the fun we missed at home yesterday and today.

Brianna’s birthday highlights included spending the afternoon at Quarry Lake; the weather was perfect for all of that fun and adventure; and then we also missed out on the birthday barbeque dinner and her girls-only sleepover.  They couldn’t camp because they got rain overnight last night and through most of today, but with Naomi away; Eli hosted a gaming night for Zack and some of their buddies; so Brianna got a brother-free night too!  We wouldn’t have stayed for that sleepover anyway if we had been home, but Naomi and I might have helped with the mini-makeovers and girl chat time.  We might have joined in for the Tai Chi by the river this morning – if it hadn’t still been raining; so we didn’t miss out on that because Brianna decided to skip that workout and get the extra sleep.  She did have a post-birthday breakfast that was a major event with her friends; and then the girls stayed together most of today and indoors while it mostly rained with just some breaks between the showers and thunderstorms.  Cassie and Michael missed out on Elliott’s birthday party, and they likely would have been drafted to help with Jessica’s birthday party too, but we would have just had a lab work day if we’d been home; so this has been a much-better day for us!

As for our travel and work adventures since the last update; that first stop was for a great local cuisine dinner; the rest of our stops along the way to Charlottetown were all about cameo sightseeing moments; and then we did a late mini-tour around the city on the way to our hotel.  Americans in general don’t actually know a lot about Canada, but little Prince Edward Island has a very big history with worldwide recognition.  It is one of the locations where the founding documents for the country was negotiated, so there is a lot of Constitution-related history on display in the city; and the island is home to the location inspiration for the Anne of Green Gables books and movies and series.  We weren’t in town for one of the theatre showings for the books-related musical, but then we would have picked the show we did see because it is directly related to 9/11.  ‘Come from Away’ is the story of the little town of Gander, New Foundland – the community that took care of thousands of passengers that were stranded there when all flights were grounded after the attacks on New York and Washington.  Thirty-eight flights were diverted to that airport; and the local people rallied to take care of their unexpected guests through until airspace was opened again for international travel.  We loved experiencing that history from a perspective we hadn’t seen before; and the local theatre troupe was amazing!

We can say the same about the work and sightseeing we did for the rest of the day, and we had fun with the meetings, site visits, and checking out museums, parks, and the island coastlines.  We would have loved to do some biking, since they have some amazing-looking trails – especially for the rural regions of the island, but maybe we’ll get the chance to do that someday in the future on a return trip!  For a change, though, let’s mention the mundane of a major travel and work adventure.  Yes, we helped Cassie and Michael for some of their work, but we also took turns with chores including doing a few loads of laundry and some supply shopping.  We can be honest and admit that Cassie and Michael don’t need our help and taking six teens along adds a lot of cost to the trip, but we are really glad that we’re getting to join in on this kind of adventure.  The chores will be our responsibility through until we get home again, but don’t expect us to write about that again unless something interesting or funny actually happens while doing those jobs!  That’s enough for our news; so let’s cover the world news update; and then we’ll get back to the co-ed cuddling that the three sets of teens are enjoying while Cassie is taking a turn at the driving.  Okay, Aiden is still cuddling with me as I write this and Ethan is holding Naomi, but you know what I mean; and cuddling should be a participation sport for everyone involved! ;^)

As for the top wars of the year, Iran and the United States are continuing their air attacks; threats continue on both sides; and none of our world leaders care about the costs to the people in the region- or anywhere else where economic consequences are affecting millions.  There are horrific reports every day now out of Ukraine and Russia; there is definitely an escalation that may stay at a high level through to winter; and commitments to spend even more money to keep the war going is proving the sunken costs theory that keeps people doubling down on failed plans despite facts proving that cutting losses and moving on would be better for everyone involved.  The NATO and European leaders seem intent on military build-up, but it remains to be seen whether that can actually happen without bankrupting the countries trying to do that in an economic environment of rising costs and contracting productivity and manufacturing capacity.  Add in growing unrest among the people; and the war mongering elites might get a very different war from the one they want to have!  Those leaders really should crack a history book or ten; since leaders in Europe have been known to enrage the masses and end up a head shorter than they ever expected.

That’s a dark note to wrap up with, but that’s all I want to cover tonight; so I’m out of here and back to the co-ed cuddling and teen chat travel fun.

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