Ethan and Ehlana:
Day One of the fall festival has been amazing! We had some overnight rain, but that was cleared out before morning Tai Chi that was by the river and with extra exercise buddies; we had a hot breakfast and helped with the work on both sides of that meal; and then we headed to school for long-enough to do the usual home room stuff and then head to the park and festival. Ehlana and I were ‘officially’ on dates today; stayed together most of the time – along with Sophia and Aaron; and had a blast whether checking out the pavilions filled with everything from art to all of the various contest entries to the shows and games to the midway thrill rides. As always, we should thank BMR Labs and the other businesses that make it possible to have better thrill rides that would normally be affordable for a small town festival, and while we do eventually get our fill of those extreme rides; that didn’t happen today – and won’t; since we’re writing this update while stopping in at our home for the week to pack overnight bags before we head to the school ahead of our trip to Hillcrest and another away game. Ehlana and Naomi will be going with Sophia and her Mom today, and they will be more-comfortable than I will be on the bus, but we also all still have the one-and-a-half hour trip each way; so we won’t get home until sometime around when the festival will end for the day anyway and don’t expect to have a chance to go back there until tomorrow morning – or afternoon; since we do need to get some chores done before we can get back to the festival fun.
We need to get going soon, but before we do that, we should include a quick update from the rest of our Thursday. Emma’s birthday dinner was an adventure and fun, but short for us too; since we pretty much ate; had a bit of play time with Emma; and then headed to the Inn for game night – along with most of the party guests except for a few of Emma’s friends and some parents and grandparents. Naomi and I won the junior gaming title for the week and that was a bonus to go with all of the fun we had with our family and friends; and then we went home with Cassie and Michael – and with Sophia and Aaron. We still had studying to do because we didn’t want to leave it until later this weekend and then we had a long chat and visit with Cassie and Michael before eventually getting around to our co-ed sleepover time. Let’s also mention that Cassie and Michael helped out with a group of next-gen kids at the festival today through volunteering at KidZone. They are also keeping some of those kids overnight tonight to help their parents and while we’re going to be busy with football anyway. Aiden is going to host our group of six tonight after the game, but that is mostly because we’ll be late getting home and will pretty much just be ready to go to sleep by the time we do get home. We’ll share those highlights with you in our next report, but that is all we have for our own news of the day.
We don’t have time for a major world news update, but want to mention that a ceasefire in Gaza may happen – though we’ll see whether that lasts for long; and there is supposed to be a hostage and prisoner release and exchange happening by early next week. That will be good news if it happens, but then a lot more needs to be done from keeping the remaining Palestinians in Gaza from starving to death and beyond that to offering them a true future that is more than ‘allowing’ them to survive.
It really is time for us to go, and we don’t want to get into a rant about anything on such a good day; so that’s it for today and we are out of here and back to the festival weekend and football adventures.
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
