Goodbye Avon!

Like with all great vacations, they must come to an end.

A few posts ago I mentioned our visit to Studio 12. I wanted to share a few pictures of the pottery we painted. It was a lot of fun and a great way to spend a rainy day.

Kendall's is the orange canister (the lid was being re-done).

Krista's is the yellow mug.

Christine painted the green fish ornament.

Colleen made a "wedding" picture frame for her brother.

I painted the purple bowl.

Rhaegan painted the blue bowl.

I was really impressed with Rhaegan's bowl.

It was very colorful.

Tom and I had a wonderful time spending the week

with two of our grandchildren. Little Marlee and

Rhaegan were such good girls and so much

fun to be with.

Thanks to our children, grandchildren and the Noble family for a fantastic week. Again we now have many great memories of our time in Avon.

What Is Up With This?

First, a BIG HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY TO SAMUEL KEETON CUPPS! We sure wish you were here so we could celebrate with you. But in just a few days you will be visiting us and we can have a big party. Have a great day. We LOVE You.

Last year when we arrived in Avon we were extremely excited to see a new establishment that had opened up, especially because it was ice cream. But then to top it off to see that the word cupps was spelled with two "p's" was unbelievable. Well something must have happened during the year.

What a bust to arrive and see the sign had changed:

Now the question is why? Maybe there was a major family feud and the new owners wanted that second "p" out. We will have to do some investigation to see if we can solve the mystery.

What to do when it rains!

We have had more thunderstorms than we have ever had in the past. It has poured every night and during most of the days we have been here. But that doesn't stop us from making the best of each day.

Just down the street from our house is Studio 12. It's an art studio where you pick out a piece of unfinished pottery and you paint it, then they fired it. Kendall, Krista and Rhaegan went yesterday and then Christine, Colleen and I went today. You will have to stay tune for a look at the finished products.

We then have a tradition to get t-shirts that represent our trip. We decided to walk to the store. On the way the ice-cream truck came by and of course Papa Cupps couldn't resist getting Rhaegan some ice-cream. Who can guess who her ice-cream is?

Even with the bad thunderstorms we went to the beach. We first had to check out Nicholas' sandcastle to see if it survived the storm. This is what was left of it:

Kendall and Rhaegan:

Three of my children who are here decided to

wrestle the incredibly large waves. Being former

lifeguards you would think they would have

better common sense:

Nicholas leads the way:

Nicholas gets hurt:

When he came up out of a huge wave Krista was dragging him at the same time waving for help. All the people around were coming over asking if he was with us. They thought a shark had mangled his foot. Dad and Shae had to carry him home and then Denise drove him up to Nags Head to the closest Urgent Care. After many hours he finally arrived back:

"Poor Baby" maybe he will think twice next time!

A tradition is to eat dinner at a joint called "Top Dog." It is known for its hamburgers. They have a burger that has 1 1/2 pounds of meat (The Tsunami) and a 2 pound burger (The Cyclone). If you eat one of them you get a trophy. We all look forward to this night.

Rhaegan helped entertain Marlee as we waited

for our food:

The food was great and we were exhausted. Heading home Rhaegan had to show off her beautiful crown.

It was a great day and despite the weather we made the most of the day.

What a Great Day!

Just across the street from "Drumstick" is a canal that is full of turtles. Rhaegan loves going over there to feed them bread.

It might be hard to see them, but there were tons

of large and very small turtles. They had to compete

though with the fish for the bread.

Tom had to hold Rhaegan really tight because she

got a little excited when she threw the bread.

We all asked each other who would be the first

in to get her if she fell in. (?)

Nicholas had another great day building

an even bigger sand castle.

Denise decorated it with sea shells.

Everyone stopped to take a look.

The tide was just getting to it at 7pm.

Wonder if it will still be standing tomorrow?

A traditions the parents have each year is to

take the ferry to Ocracoke Island and eat

lunch at "Howard's." It's a great burger joint.

We drive the car right onto the ferry and it

only takes about 30 minutes to get to the

next island. It's fun just to get away for a

few hours.

Denise wanted to throw Nicholas an early surprise

30th birthday (It's really 21st of Nov). So while

they went for a walk on the beach we decorated

the house with streamers and balloons.

I'm not sure how "surprised" he was, but it was

still fun to sing to him and eat cake and ice cream.

Happy Early 30th Nicholas!

Another Day at the Beach

This year we are trying a new house called "Drumstick." It has a lot more room to spread out and eat together. The house is older and needs some repair but we are really enjoying the extra space and some new additions like a pool table and elevator.

This side of the house faces the ocean and you can see the ocean from the third floor of the house. It's a beautiful view. The weather has been cloudy and cooler than past years but we are still getting some good tans (many have great burns as well).

Nicholas, Denise and Danni are really taking

in the sun:

Kendall, Rhaegan, Krista and "Pappa Cupps"

enjoy going into the big waves:

Of course, what would the beach be like

without Nicholas building his sand castles:

Nicholas really shows his talent:

A boy and his sand:

The finished product, but sadly the tide is coming in.

Within the next hour the masterpiece will be gone.

Stay tune for more beach adventures.

Our Beach Vacation - Day 1

Our greatly anticipated vacation finally arrived. We left Ohio at 5:00 am and headed for North Carolina. Kendall and her family flew in from Utah, Krista flew in from Maryland, and Nick and his family drove down from Ohio. We all met in Raleigh and joined up with the Nobles.

The highlight, of course, was seeing our granddaughters:

Marlee Peyton with Grandma

Rhaegan Krista (of course being a ham).

Marlee wasn't feeling very well, but she still was darling and smiled at everyone.

Krista's mother-in-law lives in the Raleigh area, so she and the doctor she works for were able to join us for dinner. It was great to see them both again. The last time I had seen them was at Krista and Josh's wedding.

We ate at Ted's Montana Grill. It's speciality is Bison (buffalo). I'm not a real fan of buffalo so I ate my chicken, but the others really enjoyed their beast. The Noble's (in the foreground) are our beach buddies. We go to the beach every year with them and their children.

This year, though, Quinten and his family and their daughter, Suzi, are not able to come.

We will miss having them with us.

Let the fun begin!

YES, IT's GIRL's CAMP

There is one thing I HATE doing more than cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping and even changing a poopy diaper. Yes, it is camping.

As the Young Women's President I was asked to go to camp. After a lot of effort trying to find a an acceptable excuse not to go, I figured it would be a good idea to go so I could "bond" with my girls. 14 girls from our ward went. And I can say I actually had a good time.

Sleeping in cabins infested with spiders and mice was a blast. We ended up having a extra girl in our cabin so I had to sleep on the floor (with a thin mattress from another cabin bunk). The darling girls kept stepping on my bed, so by day 2 I had more dirty shoe prints on my sheets than I had clean areas. The girls also ate food while sitting on my bed and left their crumbs (great mice attracters). The showers and toilets had bugs I had never seen before. The water was hot and the food was cold. And the noise level from cheers and screams was deafening. At least my toothbrush was left alone and I had a cooler full of diet Coke.

While eating our meals, the girls would yell to another girl about "getting down" which meant the girl would have to stand on the beach and dance (boogey) while they sang this song. Well one night I heard, "Hey Sister Cupps, show us how to get down." I tried to "decline" but being very pressured I jumped on the bench and showed what I had. It was the talk of the camp because I was the only leader who would shake her booty. Sorry no pictures.

Well the activities were fun, the canoeing was a blast, the food was edible, the girls were energetic, and the weather cooperated, so all ended positively.

This is me and Deborah Talbert (our ward camp director).

She made this poster. The girls had to past by

it every time they left their cabin.

Well now I have 350 days until the next camp outing. Will I go? Maybe we should have a contest and vote!