I was looking through the photos on my hard drive today to find an appropriate one for my Dad’s birthday post, instead I found this one. My very first thought was “YES! A mullet! Wait, my dad had a mullet? I don’t remember that…” It must have been when we lived in North Carolina. I have lived in four countries (and two states) because of my Dad’s work and though the constant moving was hard at times I am glad I had a chance to travel the world with him.

Anyhow, with that potentially embarrassing photo out of the way (though I like mullets), this is a more recent photo:

The last time I saw my dad was during our handfasting last summer. My brother and father live in the UAE, where he does consulting (my brother is a lawyer.) I get to see lots of photos of his various adventures over there in his blog. My family is a very complicated topic and growing up with my dad wasn’t always a walk in the park but I can say beyond the shadow of a doubt I am certainly daddy’s little girl.

I can’t find too many photos of us together which is a bit funny because we spent a lot of time together when I was growing up. He usually was taking more photos of me on our outings though. He took this one of me at an abandoned church in Spain we were exploring one weekend. It was a pain to get into, he had to hoist me into a hole in the second floor. We both have a cat like curiosity (and luckily 9 lives it seems) as well as a passion for history and the outdoors. This picture reminds me of the time we rock climbed together in the south of France.

He also took this one of me at a festival of St. George (he also paid for that dye job.) I think this was the same year we got our ears pierced together. Actually repierced for both of us since Mr. Mullet up there had an ear piercing before we moved to France. Father daughter piercing outing, some people find it weird but I think it is pretty sweet. We also went to heavy metal concerts together and ran together at Correfoc. Unfortunately I can’t talk him into the joint tattooing session… but you can’t have it all!

Because of the distance and cost of travel we don’t get to see each other much anymore, adult life does this I suppose. He was at Michael and my handfasting last summer, which was awesome and I figured it would be a couple years a least before he came again… but he is coming to visit at the beginning of August! I am looking forward to him meeting Damian for the first time.

Happy Birthday Dad! I love you.