Antelope Island

Yesterday we took an impromptu trip to Antelope Island.  It's been something we've wanted to do for a while, wishing to visit the island we look at everyday from our back door.

There we visited Buffalo point (where we saw a buffalo), the ranch (where we saw more buffalo and talked to some ladies from the Northern Utah Fiber Arts Guild who I might take some spinning lessons from once the kids go back to school - so I can learn to hand-spin my alpaca fiber!), ate at the Buffalo Grill and went to the "beach"

-----------------------------------------------

 can you spot the buffalo?

there he is...

 more buffalo in the distance

 snow cone & buffalo burgers at the Buffalo Grill

 traversing the desert to get to the lake

 ...as we got closer to the water, you could hear a distinctive buzz, about 10 feet from the shore, literal clouds of gnats. hovering to about 4 feet off the ground.  This is a sad baby because she wanted to go in the water with Finn, but didn't want to walk through the clouds of gnats.  It took us girls 3 tries to get to the water.  Daddy and Finn just plodded on through the first time.  (ps, I don't like bugs)

Brine shrimp

 

 brine shrimp everywhere...

 in the water...

Jeff’s birthday

O Pabbi Minn

I love Bjork. In high school and college I especially loved her. I loved her growling sometimes screaming but mostly her crazy beautiful voice. Swan dress and all I love her.

Once, around the time of my school days, I had my parents listening to a jazzy ensemble she had done, hoping they could appreciate it.  I watched them squint as she screamed out a note. Sigh.  Parents don't understand my music. Then this song "O Pabbi Minn" came on and my dad started singing it in English (Bjork was singing in Icelandic).  It was an Icelandic cover of "Oh My Papa" by Eddie Fisher (which was an English cover of the German song "Oh Mein Papa" by... someone in Germany). 

It was humbling and connecting all at the same time.  Here I thought I had this awesome new stuff, and it was a cover of an old song my parents knew.  I obviously knew of cover songs, but this one offered me a look into how over time, these things connect us, they mean the same things to us, even though we may imagine them differently.  

So that song is what played during our father/daughter dance at my wedding.  And maybe no one understood at all.  Or maybe, like my dad, some of the more experienced folks could pick out the tune and appreciate the choice.  Or maybe my dad's just a really special guy.  Yeah, I'm going with that last one.  

Thanks for always being there for me, dad.  Even when we're far apart.  Thanks for helping me to appreciate that everything old is new again, and to see some of the hidden connections in this world.  Happy Father's Day, O Pabbi Minn.

O Pabbi Minn by Bjork
Oh My Papa by Eddie Fisher