Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - August 5, 2019

Ethan:

We had a rest-up play day here, but we were busy too.  Starting with Tai Chi and a fruits and cinnamon buns breakfast, we moved on to a bike ride that took us about half-way around the lake and back; canoeing and swimming; lunch; more water play time all afternoon or relaxing time on the chalet deck; and an easy burgers and hot dogs dinner.  Add in more outdoor play time around the chalet and lake tonight and a small campfire in a small clearing near the shore after dark; and that’s pretty much our day in a nutshell.

It’s been spending the day with our family and friends that has been so amazing; and now we’re ready to take the fun level to the next level tomorrow – with our ghost town tour day!

We need to get some sleep to be ready for that trip; so I only have one more thing to add.  I’m thinking about baseball because Aiden and I missed our practice today; and I only bring that up because I didn’t mention that our team lost their game on Saturday.  We’ll likely get blamed for that because we weren’t there, but I’m including the news in this update because that loss pretty much puts us out of the championship match and we won’t be playing on the Labor Day weekend.  We’re not really upset about that since our expectations were low this season; and it will give us the chance to cheer for Ehlana and Naomi if their team does get to play in their championship game.

Okay, that’s all for me tonight.  I’ll post pictures with the next report if we do see any ghosts! ;^)

Ethan – out!

***

Ehlana:

That update works for me; it is getting late; and Naomi and I are ready to crash and nap – so we will.

This is Ehlana Proctor; coming to you live from what is now my past!

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - August 3, 2019

Ethan:

This update is coming to you live from our vacation chalet in the foothills of the Sierra Nevandas in California.  Ehlana and I don’t have a lot of experience with time zone changes; so it has been fun getting so much of the day to spend here even after all of the travel time, but that’s also catching up with us fast now, since it feels really late to us; so we’ll keep this update short before crashing into nap mode.

We were on the road to the airport very early; got there with lots of time to both check in for our flight and see May off on her trip to Washington D.C. – a flight that left nearly an hour earlier than ours.  That was fun; the fast food breakfast that followed wasn’t memorable; and the flights to the west coast were fun for those of us who are still novice travelers – the four kids in our group.  One security agent was a bit too-enthusiastic about checking our carry-on bags – possibly because he wanted to spend extra time with Mom, but that was only a minor annoyance; and I won’t comment on the stupidity of completely emptying the bags for a bunch of kids going on a flight between two states within our own country.  I’m positive that there hasn’t been a problem with smuggling toys, books, or video games to California!

Moving along, it didn’t take long to get our rental van once we’d picked up our luggage; we made a stop to pick up supplies and groceries; and then hit the road for the chalet.  Grass Valley is the nearest town, but getting there from the chalet takes a while; since the back roads wind their way around the hills, lakes, and woods – and that allows for a lot of privacy for the residents and rental homes in the area.  Bike rentals had already been delivered by the time we got here, but before we could go exploring or playing in the lake; we had to unload the van and help out with getting everything inside and put away.  Mom and Dad set us free after that; we went for a swim first; a bike ride next; and then we were able to play in the two canoes that Mom and Dad took down to the lake and tied up to the dock – two of the canoes kept in a storage barn as part of the chalet rental deal.

It is amazing here, and we’re going to have a blast, but we’re also waiting for Cassie and Michael to join us here by tomorrow afternoon.  They’re at their airport hotel tonight after spending most of a last day on Catalina Island before taking the last ferry of the afternoon to the mainland; so they’ll be able to get to the airport on-time for their flight into Sacramento.  We can hardly wait to see them again; and I’m glad that we’ll get to have this week together before they’ll be back at college a week from Sunday.  We were already getting tired by dinnertime, but had a barbeque; cleaned up; and did some more exploring and water play time before coming into the chalet for the night.  We’ve been winding down since then; and now we’re all heading to bed – hopefully timing that well-enough that we won’t be awake again in the middle of the night when we’re used to getting up at dawn home time.

I’ll let you know how that goes for me, but that’s it for tonight.  The real adventures will begin tomorrow; so stay tuned for the highlights of our vacation adventures in gold country!

Ethan – out!

***

Ehlana:

Ethan didn’t include this, but our favorite part of the travel fun today was getting to do that with Naomi and Aiden.  We’ll need to do something nice for their parents for letting them come with us for the week!  I’ll also add that our chalet is beautiful; the scenery is breath-taking; and we’ll likely need the entire week just to explore around here without adding in all of the fun we have planned with the sightseeing and a whitewater rafting excursion.

I don’t really have anything else to add to Ethan’s report, and it does feel really late to us; so I’m going to wrap this up and get some sleep.  The bed that Naomi and I are sharing is awesome too.  We have to climb onto it from the bench-chest at the foot of it; and we are going to enjoy the plush comfort.  Sure, my bed at home is amazing too, and I’m glad that I don’t need to high jump or pole vault to get onto it every time; so I think that I’ll keep it – even if it’s fun to have a bed like this while on a vacation. ;^)

Okay, that’s all for me too.  We definitely want to be rested and ready for our first full day of lakeside fun and games – and to play with Cassie and Michael once they get here too.

This is Ehlana Proctor; coming to you live from what is now my past!

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - August 2, 2019

Ethan:

We did chores and got ready for our trip this morning; had a play afternoon with our friends this afternoon; and wrapped up our day with a family and friends barbeque and play evening that included a co-ed ballgame at the park.  The Blizzard lost tonight against the Tornadoes, but that was only by a run, and since they were up against Pastor John and Stacey’s team; we could hardly be upset over the defeat!

Naomi and Aiden are here with us tonight, and we didn’t get right to bed when we needed some time with their parents after the game first; so I really need to wrap this up so that Aiden and I can get all of the sleep we can before our extra-early wake-up call in the morning.

It’s been an awesome day, but we’re all looking ahead to spending a week in California gold country with Cassie and Michael; and can hardly wait to get there tomorrow!

Ethan – out!

***

Ehlana:

The family and friends time ahead of our trip has been great, but we’re ready for our vacation adventure too; so I’ll go with Ethan’s report and move on to our nap time before we’ll be up, going, and on the way to the airport in a handful of hours!

Oh – and Naomi and I really love my Jacuzzi! ;^)

This is Ehlana Proctor; coming to you live from what is now my past!

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - August 1, 2019

Happy 4^th Anniversary, Jake and Stephanie!

Ethan:

We’re at the start of a new month, and while there is lots of excitement happening on the Stone side of Cassie’s family; we’ve had a fairly-quiet day here at our house.  In addition to Jake and Stephanie’s anniversary; Rebecca and Lucas took possession of the apartment they’ll be renting for the rest of their years at college – something that works out nicely for them now that Jen is married and staying home to run the pizzeria!  Cassie and Michael would have loved to help them, but while they couldn’t; Rebecca and Lucas had lots of help with the move – and it wasn’t as big a deal as it had been for Cassie, Michael, Rowen, and Tim when they were furnishing two townhomes instead of one, comparatively-small apartment.

While the Stone family was busy – including, we expect, Cassie and Michael Stone; Ehlana and I had a play morning at the lab after some chores we needed to get done ahead of our trip on Saturday; we had another picnic and play afternoon with our friends at the park and around town on the paths for the biking; and then we had more work to do before and after dinner that included continuing to get ready for our trip.  May had some teen time – including hanging out with Cody, but got home in time to watch a show with us in the lounge before bedtime while Mom and Dad worked in the office; and now we’re heading for bed to get a good night sleep because we won’t likely get a lot of sleep tomorrow night.  That’s entirely because we’re going to be up very early for the drive to the airport to get May there in time for her flight to Washington D.C. instead of due to Friday evening plans, but we’re also going to spend some time with our family and friends too before we leave for a week.

Okay, that’s all for me – I’m off to dreamland now.

Ethan – out!

***

Ehlana:

I should really try harder to beat Ethan to the first update now and then! ;^)

He’s covered the main news of the day; so I’ll only add a few side notes.

I haven’t done a general update for my research at the lab in this journal lately; and that’s because I don’t really have anything to report.  After the cold cure; we’re still in early stages of our other projects; and that always means slow progress.  Sure, it’s always possible that we’ll get an unexpected breakthrough, but that hasn’t happened; and the long series of research failures would bore most archive readers; so I won’t go there.  On the friends’ play time; I’ll add that we’ve had a good week in part because we’re going on the trip next week; so we’re making the extra effort to make good memories with our friends and avoid the drama moments.  That isn’t always easy when some of our friends really want to antagonize each other and have fun doing that too, but we like it better when we’re all happy for positive reasons instead – and we mostly got to have that again today.  We didn’t really have any major involvement in Jake and Stephanie’s anniversary, but delivered gifts and cards; and hope that they’re enjoying their celebration while taking their usual days off from the Inn.  We saw Rebecca and Lucas before they left this morning to take possession of their apartment, and they’re happy too; so we can be happy for them – and appreciate the additional precedents being set for future college students! ;^)

I think that’s all for me; we really do need to get the sleep while we can – especially when we’ll be dealing with a time zone jump on Saturday night; so I’ll move on to call it a day and get started on that nap time.

This is Ehlana Proctor; coming to you live from what is now my past!