LiG Memories: The Hilton Years (2012–2015)
More Space, Same Beautiful Chaos
How We Ended Up at the Hilton
When we moved from the Red Lion to the Hilton Vancouver Washington, it felt a little like stepping onto a bigger stage, literally. The ceilings were higher, the rooms were larger, and the carpet was… well, very Hilton. After years of making ourselves at home in a cozy riverfront hotel, suddenly we were in a gleaming downtown conference center with nearly 30,000 square feet of event space to play in.
And yet, from the very first year, it was clear:
We hadn’t outgrown ourselves. We had simply grown into a new space.
The move happened thanks to a sales manager who had worked with us at the Red Lion. She knew our people, our energy, our joyful chaos and she insisted the Hilton would love us. I wasn’t so sure. The lobby gleamed. The ceilings soared. The staff wore crisp uniforms and spoke in indoor voices.
But she was right. They welcomed us wholeheartedly.
They didn’t just tolerate our kids running through the lobby in costumes, they smiled. They didn’t flinch at our late night music circles, they learned to expect them. They gave us the run of the entire event space, and we filled it with laughter, learning, and the unmistakable hum of unschooling families finding their people.
A New Home Across from the Park
One of the unexpected gifts of the Hilton was its location. Esther Short Park, playground, gazebo, splash area, and all, sat right across the street. The Farmer’s Market became a weekend ritual. Kids darted between funshops and fountain play. Parents grabbed iced coffees and sunshine between sessions. Teens claimed the park benches like they’d been waiting for them all along.
Downtown Vancouver became part of the conference itself, an extension of our learning spaces, our conversations, and our community.
2012: Finding Our Footing in a Bigger Space
Our first year at the Hilton felt like stepping into a new chapter with a familiar cast. Everything we loved about LIFE is Good was still there, the speakers, the funshops, the joyful reunions, but now it all echoed upward into ceilings so high they seemed to lift the energy of the whole weekend. Families wandered through wide hallways, marveling at how much room there was to breathe, to gather, to play.
The larger space invited us to try new things. We added a film festival, a concert, and a second dance in the afternoon, the Awesome 80’s Dance Party, complete with neon, big hair, and parents rediscovering their best shoulder‑shimmying selves. Circle chats expanded too, with new topics like Introverts Unite! and Unhelpful Inner Dialogue, reflecting the growing diversity of experiences in the room. Even the Meet & Greet for Newbies took on a new shape, becoming more intentional as more families joined us for the first time.
By the end of the weekend, it was clear: the Hilton wasn’t too fancy for us. It was ready for us.
2013: Growing Into Ourselves
By our second year, the Hilton felt like home, and we used every inch of it. We even had an extra room that wasn’t designated for any specific purpose. We called it the Room of Requirement, a little wink to Harry Potter, and it became exactly what we needed it to be as the weekend unfolded, a quiet nook for a last‑minute funshop, a spillover space for teens, a refuge for conversations that needed privacy, or simply a place to breathe. It also became the home of the teens’ Chillout Post‑Prom Afterparty, a tradition that would continue for the rest of our Hilton years.
This was the year LIFE is Good truly stretched its wings. The weekend took on a festival‑like feel with the debut of LIFEapalooza, our first all‑unschooler music festival. Teens claimed their own dedicated world with the launch of Teen Scene, complete with late‑night hangouts and a sense of independence that fit them perfectly. Erika Davis-Pitre introduced SSUMS to LiG, because if the dads had SSUDS, the moms deserved their own secret society and their own late‑night laughter.
New chats popped up too, like Entrepreneurial Unschoolers and Wanderlust: A Life of Travel, reflecting the expanding interests of older teens and young adults. And yes, we kept the party going with an Awesome 80’s (& Slightly 70’s) Dance Party, because why stop a good thing?
2013 was the year we realized just how much LIFE is Good could hold.
2014: Leveling Up Without Losing Our Soul
By 2014, we were fully inhabiting the space. This was the year we introduced Intensives, small, focused sessions for people ready to dig deeper into the philosophy and emotional work of unschooling. They added a new layer of depth to the weekend, offering a quieter, more reflective counterbalance to the joyful bustle happening everywhere else.
Panels expanded too, with the Unschooling Siblings Panel and a more formalized Big Six Panel giving families a chance to explore the trickier parts of unschooling with honesty and humor. Outside, the park across the street became a natural extension of the conference, hosting everything from picnics to Real Life Quidditch, which made its first appearance this year and quickly became a favorite.
And at the post‑conference picnic, James Coburn made his famous nitrogen ice cream, drawing a crowd of delighted kids and curious adults as clouds of cold vapor drifted across the grass.
2014 felt like a year of maturity, not in a serious way, but in a grounded, confident way. We were growing, and it felt good.
2015: A Community in Full Bloom
By 2015, LIFE is Good at the Hilton had become a fully developed ecosystem. The toddler room buzzed with tiny explorers, while teens had their own thriving universe shaped by late‑night conversations, inside jokes, and the kind of friendships that last for years. The park across the street continued to be an extension of the conference — a place where kids blew enormous bubbles, where parents found a moment of sunlit rest, and where connections deepened on the grass between sessions.
This was also the year the next generation stepped forward. Talks like Second‑Generation Unschooling, Unlearning Toxicity and Learning Compassion, and My Life in Games reflected the growing presence of grown unschoolers returning as speakers, sharing their lived experience with a new wave of families. Panels like Unschooling with Little Ones and Transitions: How Do I Adult? made space for both ends of the parenting journey, acknowledging the full arc of unschooling life.
2015 felt like the Hilton years at their fullest expression, expansive, multigenerational, and rooted in everything that made LIFE is Good what it had always been: a community learning in freedom, together.
Holding Each Other Through Loss
The Hilton years weren’t only about expansion and celebration. They were also years when our community held each other through profound loss. During our time at the Hilton, we said goodbye to two beloved members of the LIFE is Good family, people whose presence had shaped our conference in ways both seen and unseen.
Their absence was felt in the hallways, in the quiet corners, in the laughter that caught just a little in our throats. And yet, as families do, we gathered close. We told stories. We cried. We hugged. We remembered. We carried their names gently, and we carried each other.
Those first losses taught us how to show up for one another in sorrow as fully as we did in celebration, a practice that continued, tenderly and imperfectly, as the years unfolded.
What we didn’t know then was that these would be the first of several losses our community would face in the years to come. As LIFE is Good continued, we would say goodbye to more friends, each one leaving a mark, each one woven into the fabric of our shared history. And every time, the community rose to meet the moment with tenderness, presence, and an unspoken understanding that grief is part of loving deeply.
Their memory remains part of LIFE is Good, in the friendships they nurtured, the ideas they sparked, the kindness they offered, and the way they helped shape the community we are still becoming.
What the Hilton Years Meant
The Hilton years were a moment of expansion for LIFE is Good, a time when we discovered that we could grow bigger without losing the warmth and connection that defined us. We filled larger rooms, added new offerings, welcomed more families, and still managed to keep that familiar sense of “home” at the heart of everything.
They were also the years when we first learned how to hold each other through loss. As our community deepened, so did the ways we showed up for one another, in celebration, in sorrow, and in all the ordinary moments in between. That capacity became part of who we were and who we would continue to be.
In those four years, we found out that growth doesn’t have to change our essence. It can strengthen it. The Hilton gave us room to stretch, to evolve, and to carry forward a community rooted in joy, connection, and the simple, powerful act of being there for one another.
But of course, all good things have their season, and so did our time at the Hilton. When it was time to move on, we did so with full hearts, carrying everything we had built there into the next chapter. More change was coming, but we had learned how to meet change together.
Join Us for the Final Chapter
As we look back on where it all began, we are also preparing to close this beautiful circle. I would love for you to join us for the final chapter of the LIFE is Good story at this year’s conference, a celebration of community, connection, and nearly two decades of learning in freedom.
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