There is an unusual rock formation found in the remote Mono Lake in California. It is called “tufa tower” with spires and knobs composed of calcium carbonate. It is formed due to an interaction between the freshwater springs and alkaline lake water. We wanted to see them and got there just before dark. There was just enough light for our hike out to the lake to see them. The moon added a cool feature to our viewing. There was a lot of bird activity around the lake. Because of the water resource issues in California more and more of these towers are viewable. The hike from the parking lot was not long and the time of day we visited made the temperature fantastic. We stayed about a half an hour.

When traveling long distances in a car it is best to find a few stops for both education and stretching our legs. Our stop at Harry S. Truman’s home in Independence , MO was one of these stops. Truman was the 33rd president and hailed from the state of Missouri. We saw the small visitor center exhibits and movie about the home in town. It was where the future Mrs. Truman was born and raised and became the house the married couple lived in for their entire life. The historical perspective from the location we visited was about the home and how they used it. The “next” tour that we could join was a bit of a wait so we skipped it and moved on. The lasting effect of this stop is that the girls learned a bit more about the presidency, discovered that some houses have names (in this case the house was called ‘the little white house’), and can pick a photo of Truman out. We visited for a half of an hour.

We have been waiting for words from Julia and it appears that the wait might be over. Over the last three days we have heard four sentences of two words and one three. The first we heard was her answering a question and requesting to go swimming by saying “me pool”. She was sweet to say it with her hand in the air like a school age girl. Fun stuff.

Emily is quite a talker and seems to have a really good stream of conversation. As she was playing tonight, she was rearranging diapers into a road. She disliked something and exclaimed “Oh, Crickets”. I though it was awesome. I hope to hear that one again.

Julia read a book to Mommy.

Birthdays are a great thing to celebrate! We celebrated Daddy’s birthday with morning gifts, afternoon not-so-surprise at Daddy’s work with snacks, evening Mexican food, and soapillias for dessert. There were cupcakes because Julia couldn’t handle the though of a birthday without cupcakes. Daddy enjoyed his day! We will do it again in a year.