In Memoriam...

Yesterday, while we drove through the snow-covered plains of South-Western Texas, the sky was low and grey and my heart was heavy. I kept wiping tears thinking about our dear friend who just passed that morning. He was the husband of one of my dearest friend, the father of my girls' best friends. He lost his battle against cancer. He was only 38. We are so very sad.

Hier, tandis que nous conduisions à travers les plaines couvertes de neige du Sud-Ouest du Texas, le ciel était bas et gris et mon cœur était lourd. J'essuyais mes larmes en pensant à notre ami qui venait de mourir ce matin. Il était le mari d'une de mes amies les plus chères, le père des meilleurs amis de mes filles. Il a perdu la bataille contre le cancer. À 38 ans. Nous sommes profondément tristes.

Yesterday, it felt like the sky was mourning with us the departure of a wonderful man that will always be remembered.

Hier, c'était comme si le ciel était endeuillé comme nous du départ d'un homme extraordinaire dont on se souviendra toujours.

The best moments of 2012

Here are some of our best moments of 2012 (click on each image to see them bigger):

Voici quelques-uns de nos meilleurs moments en 2012 (cliquez sur chacune des images pour les voir plus grandes) :

:: Our 5 months in Costa Rica: dinner on the roof with friends, my mom's visit and our great road trip, Isabel and Mercedes' visit and surfing, the San Isidro farmer's market every week, making new friends, living in sarongs... ::

:: Costa Rica: Hélène's visit, cooling off in the waterfalls, Dan's visit and SUP, Manon and her family's visit and all the big emotions we went through together... ::

:: Costa Rica: meeting our friends in Bijagua, La Paz Waterfall gardens, the hidden natural hot springs near the Arenal Volcano, Arturo... ::

:: Costa Rica: making chocolate bread with Gilles... ::

:: Reconnecting with friends and family in Quebec: retrouvailles, Pico, Aïsha's first race, fun with Asterix and Obelix. ::

:: Our Yukon summer: going fishing with Max, saying goodbye to good friends, geocaching with Elise and Ludo... ::

:: Our Yukon summer: sleeping in a yurt, At Josée's, hiking and camping with Manon, canoeing on turquoise waters, mushroom picking, Blue moon at Phil and Amanda's... ::

:: British Columbia : At Andy and Martine's in Rossland and at Annie and Chris's in Winlaw... ::

:: The US National Parks : Glacier NP, Yellowstone NP, Zion NP, Bryce Canyon NP, and so many more.. ::

:: Rock climbing in Maple Canyon, Utah ::

:: Exploring canyons in Southern Utah: Wire Pass and Buckskin Gulch, Dry Fork, Peekaboo and Spooky, Water Holes... ::

:: Christmas with Anton and Pascale ::

From white snow to white sands: ending the year in laughter

I mentioned before that even though we do not make resolutions for the new year, we like to look back on the previous year and talk about the things we want to see change in the upcoming year. My big thing for many years was to find more joy in our life. I wanted us to have fun together, to be joyful, to laugh more. It sounded so simple, I could not understand why it was so hard to get there. I can truly say that 2012 brought that joy I was looking for for so many years, after I finally learned to let go of control.

J'ai déjà mentionné qu'on ne prenait pas de résolutions pour la nouvelle année, mais que nous aimons bien regarder l'année qui vient de passer et parler des choses que nous aimerions voir changer dans l'année à venir. Depuis plusieurs années, je souhaitais voir plus de joie dans notre vie. Je voulais qu'on ait du plaisir ensemble et rire davantage. Ça semblait si simple, je ne comprenais tout simplement pas comment nous n'y arrivions pas. Je peux vraiment dire qu'en 2012, nous avons trouvé cette joie que j'ai cherché pendant plusieurs années, après avoir finalement réellement lâché prise.

:: Lava fields in the snow, near Carrizozo/Champs de lave dans la neige, près de Carrizozo ::

White Sands National Monument mesmerized us.

Nous avons trouvé White Sands National Monument vraiment fascinant.

It seems so fitting that we ended 2012 in a fit of laugher, in our trailer, in a Walmart parking lot, the heat cranked up, playing board games and eating chocolate cookies! We drove from Albuquerque (in the snow) to White Sands National Monument (our plan was to camp there). When we arrived there, we found out there was no campsites there and camping was prohibited. Since we already had a bad experience camping on a National Monument outside of the designated camping area (out trailer was too big to fit in the campground), we decided to go back to the nearest city and find a legal place to camp... It was already late and we wanted to make the delicious Portughese garlic soup from Anton's mom, so we decided Walmart would do. That was almost as smart a move as camping in a Walmart camping lot on Thanksgiving... We got woken up at 2 am by a drunk guy claiming he lost his cell phone and that his GPS tracker said it was in our trailer... He said if he had to come back with the police, he would... Well, Happy New Year!! Oh, and the guy never came back...

Ça me semble tellement symbolique qu'on ait terminé l'année 2012 en se tordant de rire, dans notre roulotte, dans un stationnement de Walmart, le chauffage dans le tapis, en jouant à des jeux de société et en mangeant des biscuits au chocolat! Nous avions fait la route d'Albuquerque (dans la neige) jusqu'à White Sands National Monument (notre plan étant d'y camper). Quand nous y sommes arrivés, nous avons vu qu'il n'y avait pas de terrain de camping et que le camping y était interdit. Comme nous venions juste d'avoir une mauvaise expérience dans un monument national en campant à l'extérieur du camping désigné (notre roulotte était trop longue pour le camping), nous avons décidé de retourner à la ville la plus proche pour trouver un endroit légal pour dormir... Il était déjà tard et nous voulions faire la bonne soupe à l'ail portugaise de la maman d'Anton, alors nous avons décidé que Walmart ferait l'affaire. Une décision presque aussi intelligente que de camper dans un Walmart le soir de Thanksgiving... Nous avons été réveillé à 2 h du matin par un gars saoul qui nous disait qu'il avait perdu son cellulaire et que son GPS lui disait qu'il était dans notre roulotte... Il a dit que s'il devait revenir avec la police, il le ferait... Génial! Oh, et le gars n'est jamais revenu...

:: The girls had a blast creating a castle in that big sand hill for more than an hour/ Les filles se sont amusées pendant plus d'une heure à créer un chateau dans cette grosse montagne de sable ::

Then, we spotted something almost unreal... a dromadary! And a super nice dromadary on top of it. She was named Mathilda and spoke Polish only and was used by this man who was a psychologist with children who went through trauma.

Puis, une vision presque irréelle s'est offerte à nous... un dromadaire! Et super gentille à part ça! Elle s'appelait Mathilda et parlait polonais et était utilisée par cet homme, un psychologue, qui travaille avec les enfants qui ont subi des traumatismes.

 Mathilda and Mathilde

As soon as the sun started to get down, it got really cold in that white sand desert...

Dès que le soleil s'est couché, il s'est mis à faire très froid dans ce désert de sable blanc...

Many people had brought their sleighs and crazy carpet to slide down the white sand hills! It looked fun but it was not nearly as fast as snow...

Plusieurs personnes avaient apporté leurs traîneaux et crazy carpet pour glisser en bas des collines de sable blanc! Ça avait l'air amusant, mais vraiment pas aussi vite que sur la neige.

En route, the girls had watched the movie Brave (We LOVE that movie, finally a Disney movie where there is no prince to marry or save the heroin!! And a strong and rebelious heroin she is!! What a great empowering image of a girl that follows her interests and dreams!) 3 times in a row in the truck (once in French, once in English and once in Spanish) and spent the day laughing their heads off on the back seat while JF and I discussed the great conference we just attended and did a review of our year. We simply looked back at our favorite days of 2012 and wondered why they were our favorite days. Turns out what came up was our best moments were when we got to spend uninterrupted time and share our daily lives with friends and family members, and of course, all the spontaneous moments that come with a nomadic traveling lifestyle...

En route, les filles avaient regardé le film Rebelle (on ADORE ce film, finalement, un film de Disney où il n'y a pas de prince à marier ou qui sauve l'héroïne!! Et quelle héroïne forte et rebelle!! Une image inspirante d'une fille qui poursuit ses intérêts et ses rêves!) 3 fois d'affilée (une fois en français, une fois en anglais et une fois en espagnol) et avait passé la journée à rigoler sur le siège arrière tandis que JF et moi discutions de la super conférence à laquelle nous venions d'assister et nous faisions une revue de notre année. Nous avons simplement parlé de nos journées préférées de 2012 et des raisons pour lesquelles ces journées nous avaient plu tout particulièrement. Il semble que nos meilleurs moments étaient ceux où nous avons passé du temps ininterrompu avec des gens et partagé notre quotidien avec eux, et bien sûr, tous les moments spontanés qui accompagnent la vie de nomades voyageurs...

:: And a color photo to show you just how white the sand really is and how it really totally looks like snow!/Et une photo couleur pour vous montrer à quel point le sable est blanc et combien il ressemble à de la neige! ::

:: The beautiful sunset JF saw from our trailer, near White Sands National Monument last night/Le magnifique coucher de soleil que JF a aperçu de notre roulotte hier soir près de White Sands National Monument ::

:: My first star trails picture/Ma première photo de traces d'étoiles ::

2012 really saw us connect and play together like never before. And it truly feels amazing!

2012 a été une année où nous avons connecté et nous nous sommes amusés ensemble comme jamais auparavant. Et c'est vraiment génial!

The Always Learning Live (ALL) Unschooling Symposium

I found out over 6 months ago about this symposium and planned our whole trip around it! I could not wait to meet Sandra Dodd, Pam Sorooshian and Joyce Fetteroll in person!! I had been on Sandra Dodd's discussion list (Always Learning yahoo group) for years (mostly as a lurker) and read many, many pages from her Website as well as Joyce's Website. They are a major inspiration for me and they all have grown unschooled kids that I could not wait to meet too.

Sandra had really good deals at the hotel where the conference was held for the participants and we were glad to book a room since it was freezing outside. The best part was that we could take a warm bath every day, a luxury we really missed in the last 6 months!

We spent 3 full days at the conference and we had such a great time. The girls kept saying that it felt like an unschooling celebration, and it truly was! There were games, crafts, a table always full of food, lots of discussions and laughter, and wonderful, wonderful families.

Rose Sorooshian panel with Marty, Kirby and Holly Dodd and Rose, Roxana and Roya Sorooshian : unschoolers in jobs and in college classes. A very interesting discussion! Those kids are so awesome!

:: Pam Sorooshian and her 3 daughters : Rose, Roya and Roxana ::

:: Rose Sorooshian led a discussion on Learning from TV and movies and had everybody write all the TV shows they remember watching and then we all wrote on post-it things we learned from each of those shows. Everybody had a blast! ::

:: The girls spent a lot of time crafting, knitting, painting and drawing during the talks. Mathilde surprised us all by playing quite a bit with the other kids even if she could not communicate in English with them. Our little social butterfly! ::

:: One night, Sandra had rented an helium machine and we had fun with balloons (some with superballs in them!). Everybody, kids and adults alike, were smiling from cheek to cheek! They other night she had glow sticks for the kids. We played late in the hotel room's bathtub with them! ::

:: We met wonderful people that could have easily become friends if we did not live so far from each other. Their little Peregrine was such a happy baby! And he was just adorable! ::

I don't have any good photos of Joyce Fetteroll's talk on the unschooling toolbox, but it was one of my favorite talk. I loved when she said that when they start unschooling, many parents have that idea that unschooled kids read the classics, do science experiment in the kitchen (or build nuclear reactor in the basement) or something that you can tell the grand-parents... not play video game, watch a lot of TV and tell fart jokes!! When this is what happens, they say that their kids are simply not cut off for unschooling... Then she went on to say that when there is ENGAGEMENT (if the child is engaged in something, whatever it is he is doing), important learning is going on.

:: Sandra Dodd writing about what she learned from TV shows ::

:: Sandra Dodd and Pam Sorooshian on Why they do not always answer people's question the way those people expect them to on the discussion list ::

In her talk, Learning is learning: Unschooling everything, Pam Sorooshian said that thinking about what an 11 yo should know is as ridiculous as thinking about what a 52 yo should know. There is no specific age for specific learning. Here's a good article by Pam on unschooling.

:: The amazing bunch of grown up unschoolers, the Dodds and the Sorooshians ::

There were many more interesting conferences. Jill Parmer and her son Luke talked about multi-player online games and the discussion opened up on TV viewing. Renee Cabatic told the story of her family and shared inspiring moments of their beautiful life together (Xumai and Xander, their twins, are such beautiful and smart kids!). Joyce and Carl Fetterol (who is a math teacher in a community college) discussed what's wrong with school math. The Symposium ended up with the Dodd Family Panel, where they shared bits and pieces of their stories and generously answered all of our questions. It was really funny to hear Marty and Kirby talk about old fights they had... and it demystified for me the idea that uncoerced (unschooled) kids are always happy and do not fight with each other. 

JF spent two evenings playing card games with other people that attended the conference (Dominion) and I really enjoyed learning to play 5 Crowns with Sandra, Keith (Sandra's husband) and others. It almost felt unreal to me to be here, sitting with Sandra and chatting, playing cards with her, I just felt so lucky! I had the same feeling as when we stayed with Leandre Bergeron (my other unschooling mentor) last summer. It feels really awesome to meet the people you admire!