My Ray was born ---
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Ray! (DAD, GRANDPA, UNCLE, BROTHER, ELDER, etc)
Today is Ray's 79th Birthday -- and he's still going strong!
What a delight for him to be able to continue serving the Lord, even at this advanced stage of his life. Hoooorah!!
We continually look back on our lives in wonder and awe at all the wonderful things we've been able to do -- it is certainly a treasure book of memories!
From our early struggles with getting Ray's schooling finished and starting our family, to all the years in the Church Educational System (Arizona, Montana and Utah) and the joys of missionary service (Barbados, West Indies; Roanoke, VA; St. George, UT; and Palmyra, NY) we have enjoyed the choice blessings of our Heavenly Father.We have three WONDERFUL children -- Kevin, Kristi, and Glenn and they have blessed our lives continually. And then they have given us eleven ADORABLE grandchildren -- (4) Kristin, Justin, Kyle, Kelley; (5) Jaron, Trisha, Clinton, Tanessa, Jacob; (2) Brooke, Jacob. And in turn some of those grandchildren have married and have given us eight simply DARLING little great grandchildren -- Emmy, Carter, Ashton, Lilly; Ali, Grant; Corgin; Addi. (P.S. I want to add that we also have some GREAT in-laws in our family: son-in-law Brent Simonson; daughters-in-law Edith Ann Hamblin and Susan Hamblin. And several grandchildren in-laws: Heather Simonson; Katie Simonson; Daniel Evans; Jacob Larsen.) What else could we ever want?? All of you have blessed our lives tremendously!! THANK YOU!
Ray has had a wonderful life -- from his carefree days in Eagar, AZ where he enjoyed the small town atmosphere of knowing everybody in town and sharing his life with lots of relatives and many great friends. Enjoying his life as a "cowboy" and small town "dude."We met in Provo, UT when he came to go to college at BYU. Here he found another fun family to be a part of his life, he loved them and they loved him! It was a school year romance for 2 years, with Ray returning home each summer to work for the US Forest Service. Then in June 1950 he accepted a mission call and served in the West Central States Mission for 2 years. We became engaged in Nov. 1951 with a "mail order" ring sent from the missionfield. Ha! He returned from his mission in June and we were married August 15, 1952 -- six weeks after his return. It has been a wonderful life together!!
The purpose of this little bit of history is to let all of our family (children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren) know what a GREAT man this Grandpa is. He honors his Priesthood and loves the Lord, he has a strong testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He loves serving the Lord and also serving all those around him; he loves all of his family with honorable devotion and sacrifices many times so others can be comfortable and enjoy life.He has always made my life enjoyable and happy and I THINK I WILL KEEP HIM!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HONEY!!!
