Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Live and Learn moments, the final year:

This was the last Kelly Lovejoy-produced Live and Learn conference. It was my fifth Live and Learn. It was a bittersweet week. There were several fantastic tributes created to Kelly that included pictures from all of the other years' conferences. And the people who were not there this year created a palpable void, for me anyway. But I did meet so many interesting and peaceful parents, reunited with other amazing people and, most importantly, the kids had a blast.

The talent show is always a huge highlight. This year was particularly great. Jesse danced to "Mamma Mia" and had the audience doing the wave for him at the end.
The above boy is the world's next Bob Dylan. He was an amazing performer and lyricist and he brought down the house. I know that I am going to be glad to have so many pictures of him one day, to be able to show that I knew him back when...
Broc and Ben brought the soul to the night.
Above is Camille. She is quite a talented young tap dancer and one of the sweetest six year old girls I've ever met. I was lucky enough to get her as my fairy godchild in the drawing so I got to give her tokens of my esteem.
One of the highlights of the talent show is watching all the kids who gather on the floor, close to the stage. It's not just the little ones. When Fire asked all of the girls to join her on stage to dance, Gillen always leaped up there as well. Who wouldn't follow Fire, anywhere?

Gillen had a good turnout for his hemp friendship bracelet "funshop". Abbi and Alec Traaseth came and brought lots of other cool teenagers with them, which was really fun for him. The picture below shows Emma Fuller and her oh so loving mom, Beth, whose Peaceful Partnership talk was fantastic. As I told her, she could talk for an hour about paper clips and I would be glued to every word. She is a talented speaker.

Max, throwing his whole body into the bracelet making, as he does with everything. He is such a talented, self-taught dancer. I could watch him break dance for hours.

I didn't take as many pictures this year. I was too busy listening, and talking. But I did bring my camera to the beginning of the Masquerade Ball, before I started singing karaoke.... Here are some of my favorites:

This first one is of my favorite couple, Abbi and Nic, who looked a lot, that night, like the main characters from The Princess Bride:Cameron morphed very persuasively into Hunter S. Thompson!
Gillen made his mask at Robyn's mask-making funshop:

Kelli T. :
Alec:Above are Kyra, Alec and Tim. Below are Marie Antoinette (Mindy) and Little Bo Peep (Sophie).

Joseph :Duncan Lovejoy, and his dad.
It was an eventful week, proceeded by many adventures in the mountains the week before. I am tired, deeply tired, but grateful.

14 comments:

Jodi said...

tired...but happy I'm sure. Enjoy these next few days of reflecting on your time away.

Flo said...

It was so fun to meet you after reading your blog so much! Thank you for all of your kindness towards Camille- she adores you, too. And did you know she's actually 6, not 8! Isn't that amazing? Her birthday is next month and she's already got plans... Hoping to run into you again! Thanks for the fun and love.

Madeline Rains said...

OMG! Camille is 6? I thought her god child info said 8. oops. She is truly amazing. Flo, it was great to meet you IRL as well.

piscesgrrl said...

Hey grrrl, found you! :-)

Steph said...

Hey Madeline! I'm so happy to see the picture of Nic and Abbi -- I missed being there myself, but I'm glad he had such a great time.

Danielle said...

So bummed I couldn't be there this year, but it's wonderful to catch the little glimpses through your camera.

Dawn said...

All of it sounds wondeful! I am looking forward to going to the Good Vibrations Conference here in our neck of the woods. It will be our first and we are excited :)

Glad your back~

Rachel said...

Madeline, thank you so much for this post-conference summary! I was counting on your for just such a thing, only I wish for more more more of your beautiful pictures. I completely understand that you had to be there, being present in the moment, not taking photos of it. For goodness sake, it was the last one, and you needed to soak it all in. But you have such a beautiful eye and catch so many sweet things (I love that photo of Max making his bracelet!).

We are so sad we missed it, and one of the big reasons would have been to connect with you, but I am really happy to hear about the conference and know it was just as wonderful as it could have been. Now, where exactly are we going to see you so we can actually get to know each other in person? :)

Madeline Rains said...

It's good to be back here seeing you familiar profile pic.s Is that Nic's mom here too? I loved meeting your son. He is worthy of Abbi, which is saying a lot. What a wonderful pair they are. I missed seeing your whole family, and Rachel's, and of course - Danielle's : (

gail said...

Your bumper sticker from your FGP is in the mail! It was so wonderful to see both you and the boys. We'll be up your way at some point when you are home and be sure and connect. Love your pictures...I still haven't gotten mine posted..maybe later today.

Ren Allen said...

I have two words for you; BLOG CARNIVAL!! All you on-the-ball bloggers need to let me use your L&L posts.:)
Pleez?

Thanks for sharing...it's fun to re-live it all.

Nancy said...

lovely pictures!

laura said...

i love you guys!!! i especially felt a special bond with gillen, he's just amazing!

hey, could you save a table just for us next time we get together...LOL!!!

Madeline Rains said...

Ren, I'm a bit late on answering you but if you were waiting for an answer : ) YES! I would love to be part of the carnival - it probably already happened; I've been offline for days...Off to check out your blog