Ethan and Ehlana:
Happy 4th Birthday, Jessica Warren!
Happy 25th Birthday, Elliott Roberts!
We’re having another very busy day, but promised a double update; so let’s get to it while we are home for a quick break and getting some gear together for a second camping night.
Ehlana and I were with the first wave of family and friends that headed to Quarry Lake yesterday and that was entirely so we could help with our day camp set-up. Brianna and her best friends got right to the play time with swimming and playing on the water slides while we worked, and then we joined in for a while until we all stopped for the picnic lunch. Since I got teased about ‘officially’ joining the club of guys that really appreciate time with girlfriends in swimsuits along with Michael and some of our favorite fathers; I’ll also mention that I’ve always felt that way about Naomi; so maybe those joke-makers have the issue with changing perception of Naomi – not me. Aiden and Aaron got teased too, and that was mostly happening whenever we helped the other guys with work while our favorite girls were busy helping out with Brianna and her friends and the younger cousins.
Ehlana and I were not with Brianna’s group for the rounds of group activities like climbing the rock wall or the other entertainment options, but we had fun with the group that we were assigned to lead with Naomi and Aiden. We had fun with the climbing, zip line rides, a half-hour on Aqua Bikes; and a half-hour on the trails with rental bikes with the rest of our play time spent in the water or on the water slides. We really lucked out for the weather, since we ended up missing out on all bad weather in the area while at the campground. There was a thunderstorm late in the afternoon, but it happened while we were heading home; didn’t last for long; and only delayed unloading all of the vehicles for about ten minutes before it moved out of the area again and we got back to sunshine and we got a bit of extra humidity. The barbeque birthday dinner was still on; and Ehlana and I were among the teen workers that helped out with getting that meal out and the kids all fed. Our ball practices were still on, so we ended up missing the tail-end of that meal – and Brianna’s gift-opening and the cake and ice cream dessert while we headed to the park for our baseball workouts. We had fun with that; hurried back to the Carringtons after that; and were back to work because I was in charge of the outdoor movies set-up. We did jump in the river for a quick cool-down swim and got changed before starting the movies at dusk; and then we were able to enjoy some co-ed cuddle time while we watched the movies that Brianna picked out with some help from her friends. Zack, Eli, and some of their buddies weren’t all that entertained with those choices, but they played nice with Brianna and just went off to have their own fun on or in the river. That is progress from our perspective; and we won’t try to scare Brianna or any of the other girls around their ages with suggestions that they might prefer Zack and Eli right now compared to where they might be in the not-so-distant future if they get around to ‘crossing over’ and joining the fledgling tween couples’ club! ;^)
Brianna had parental approval for two movies; we managed to get through both of them by midnight; and then some of us went for a late-night swim before wrapping up the day with quiet cuddle and chat time around the tents. The younger cousins were with us for the night, so we didn’t have any co-ed tents, but we stayed up late; and only had naps anyway before getting up again at dawn for Tai Chi by the river. We loved that workout with the extra exercise buddies, and then it was time to get busy again while getting all of the campers fed. Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne had extra parental support for that meal, but it was also a work day; and we were drafted to keep the younger kids entertained all day. We’ve been doing that and will continue for the rest of the day because we’re doing another outdoor movies and camping night. Our adventures today included biking the trails; park playground fun; swimming, canoeing, and back yard games. Pizzeria pizza was delivered for lunch; and now Ehlana and I are, as mentioned, grabbing clean clothes and more camping supplies before we need to get back to the Carringtons to help with another barbeque dinner. We might actually end up with more campers tonight, but the older teens have other plans; and the additions are other friends that weren’t at Brianna’s party yesterday – including a few of our friends. We’ll also be doing a park trip for the co-ed ball practice, but we won’t have time for computing later; so we’ll save those stories for our next report. We do want to include a quick world news update, though, so let’s do that; and then we’ll need to get back to the ‘live’ action!
The Ukraine conflict is back in the news ahead of other stories because Russian air attacks have been escalating to new levels, with nightly swarms of hundreds of drones and missiles hitting targets all across the country. The report from last night was that more than seven-hundred drones and missiles were sent into Ukraine; with the biggest change being the apparent expansion of target choices. The destruction is terrible; and dealing with all of the extra damage must be exhausting for the emergency services workers that are being overwhelmed by the fires, injuries, and everything else that is happening in the aftermath of the destruction. The frontlines fighting is even uglier; Russian forces are making progress in many areas; and nobody can really even guess at how long the Ukrainian forces can continue to fight before they don’t have enough fighters left and their defenses collapse. That does seem to be inevitable to us – unless Ukraine’s allies decide to send in their armies; and we don’t even want to think about that kind of escalation that really could lead to a world war.
There is less news right now from the Middle East, but the fighting still continues against the Palestinians – not that there is much fighting happening on the Palestinian side while Israel continues their genocidal campaign in Gaza. Israel also continues attacks on Yemen; tensions are still high between them and Lebanon; and they continue to occupy parts of Syria – basically colluding with the new leaders in Syria while the world again does nothing as Syrian Christians and minorities are rounded up, tortured, and killed by the formerly most-wanted terrorists. The fighting with Iran is still paused, but the underlying issues are not resolved; and the entire region is still a powder keg just waiting to be set off again.
There is more talk about tariffs of various kinds around the world for various reasons, but all that really seems to be happening is that countries and businesses are finding ways around any tariffs or they are adapting and making other deals to replace any lost international trade. Basically, that means that the rest of the world is looking to move away from trade with ‘western’ countries and making deals with the countries that aren’t trying to bully them. Since China and India have a third of the world’s population; it isn’t surprising that the rest of the world wants to make the biggest deals with them. There is always a lot of rhetoric about the much-lower economic activity, but most of those discussions ignore very-important issues such as which countries have the natural resources and production capacity. We’ll add that there is a huge difference for costs too, and that shouldn’t actually be a surprise to anyone in the west; since we’ve all been taking advantage of those differences for decades now so that we can have our cheaper tech and other products! Our leaders can talk all they want about bringing some of that production home again, but that is also very simplistic; and won’t change the reality that we can’t compete on prices against much-larger workforces and production capabilities.
China, India, and a lot of other countries are figuring that out now, so our leaders better figure that out sooner instead of later; since we really need to start getting along with the rest of the world instead of being the biggest bully on the block. We can’t actually win that fight when the only way we could ‘win’ would lead to the entire world losing everything. That’s definitely too-much doom and gloom for any day – especially when we are having so much fun with our family and friends; so that’s all for today. We really need to get going now, so stay tuned for our next report; and we’ll get back to living the adventures that we’ll write about sometime tomorrow!
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
