Alice writes -

We are just having the most fun! We celebrated Clayton's birthday on Monday, spent the afternoon at the local amusement park - right on the lake, you could see from one side of the park to the other, house of mirrors, great ferris wheel, one of the wooden roller coasters left in US, cotton candy, bumper cars, merry-go-round and log flume. JP (w/Clayton as passenger), Noah and Jim had lots of fun on the go-kart track! Bumper cars and spinning apples - Travis asked me to go on the spinning apples with him - so, Clayton, Travis and I took on this ride. I barely made it through - used to be able to do all of these kind of twisty, turny things, obviously not anymore. We were all a little green around the gills when we exited - Travis and I stayed on merry -go-round after this. They had a few carnival games and Clayton wanted to try the one where you throw the football through a tire to win your prize. The girl working the booth handed Clayton the ball and asked him to take a "practice" throw to see if he was big enough to get the ball to the tire - he took aim and let that football fly - right through the tire!!! He almost made his second throw and was certainly closer than any of the rest of us. Clayton chose a stuffed snake as his prize - a great birthday treat!

We ate dinner that night with Jim at his resaturant and came back to camp to open presents - Clayton was particulary excited about his present from Noah and Jim - a remote controlled "Hummer"! Having lots of fun racing that around the campground. Clayton has also had a good time putting together some lego sets that JP mailed out to Jim ahead of time so they would be here when we arrived. Built a big campfire and proceeded to play a rousing game of Monopoly - Clayton's choice - Jim and Noah ended up in a draw, I was looking really good for a while and it only took landing on Park Place one time w/rent at $2500 to wipe me out. Anway, a great time together and a perfect end to a fun birthday day for Clayton.

Yesterday, we planned to go to an area in Minnesota called Pipestone - a National Monument - local Native Americans still mine pipestone there. As we were looking at the map Jim and JP noticed a railroad museum th