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!

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!