In the matter of two days I took over 630 pictures; forgive me, but it was the first time all of my uncles and aunts of my fathers' side have been together in nearly a decade I'm sure.
So, needless to say, LOTS of pictures. I've posted a few and I'll comment accordingly. I believe I caught all of the need-to-see moments in at least one picture and shared at least one.
If anyone knows my grandmother they should know that she delights in music; one of the songs she always did with us growing up was "tootie-tah". She'd stand in front of us, thumbs up, elbows out, knees bent, shoulders back, tongue out... tootie-tah, tootie-tah, tootie-tah tah... Oh, we'd all get a good laugh at it. So this year my cousin Michael asked her to do it; it might have been a form of nostaligia but it also might have been him wanting to show his kids what crazy grandma use to put us through.
My cousin Tommy, light blue shirt, is one of the most funny kids I know. Growing up with a cousin who has down-syndrome was a little weird when young; you weren't sure how to act around him or what to do when he got angry but as time went on and being together again for thanksgiving I think it's obvious that our family would NOT be as much fun nor would it be complete without him. 
This was one of the poses he did to try and get the kids to smile for family pictures, usually accompanied with some kind of animal noise either pig or monkey.
Aunt Sharie, Tommy's mom, tells us he LOVES the pretty girls; so is it any surprise that when it was time for pictures he would only come back if Stephani went with him? Nah... no surprise there.
Family picture with the grandparents. Yes, we were missing two of the boys but this is just to show them what they missed. 
Simeon and Alex came to play in the Ray family Turkey bowl with us. Let's just say that it took a LONG time in between snaps for the other team to get their act together so they had fun tossing the ball back and forth with my father. 
Simeon throwing it back to dad.
Another Brent Ray family picture. Notice how they put the desert army family in tan... yeah... we know we are loved.
Again with the standing around, but it's to be expected; boys are just jittery to get in there!
Dad tossing the ball to himself during a break; this picture doesn't really highlight anything, but I thought it was a nice picture.
Alex, and Simeon whom you cannot see, were dad's sidekicks the whole game and were our best players.
Grandma and Grandpa Ray in Red, Dad in Tan, Uncle Bruce in Orange, Aunt Laree in Purple, Aunt Peggie in Green and Aunt Sharie in Blue... The family Ray.
There was a little bit of an argument at the house as these flags went up. Our family is VERY patriotic and so Grandma and Grandpa Ray have a flag pole in their front yard for the American Flag; however, dad brought an Army flag for him to fly too. Now, we have a lot of Army presence in the family but there is also some Air Force too. The reason for the Army is NOT because my father serves in the Army rather it's because my grandfather served in the Army.
So, here goes Alex, we had the Ray Family Turkey Trot and Alex actually ran the whole thing. Now you might think, oh, it was a mile... NO, this was a THREE MILE run. And the kid ran the whole thing and beat a lot of the adults!
This picture was taken at the end of it and behind him is my Uncle Marvin whom he ran the whole thing with.
At the end of the race Alex ran right out of his shoe!
Mahonri finishing; came in third (not counting Jordan who cheated) after running an extra mile or so due to lack of directional sense.
And here are the running buddies. Uncle Marvin was so nice to run with Alex.
My crazy Aunt Peggie whom we all LOVE!
So, story time, Stephani and my cousin Daniel started out this 'race' together. I was in the car taking pictures when I started to wonder where they were since I had not seen them pass me in a LONG time. So I'm driving around and I found them stopped at a friends house... TALKING! SLACKERS!
Simeon and Alex studying over the course map for the Turkey Trot.
So, I already told you about my cousin Tommy, but when we first got there he would pose whenever he saw me with my camera, a lot of times it'd be a cute innocent pose, but this one just happened to be kissing at me. Another funny Tommy story is that he communicates a lot by writing and so he brought me a piece of paper with names like Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood and other pretty girl names on it. Aunt Sharie explained to me that those are the names of his crushes. I think he likes them for their music though ;)
And of course, one final picture of the Ray siblings from youngest to oldest doing what they do best, nothing serious :)It was an amazing weekend full of family and good times. I can't wait to do it again; hopefully with even more family.
Where in the World is Sara D. Ray? Well, now you know.
On the sleeve it marked the day, October 10, 2009; when the birthday boy saw the day he started asking what was going on and the look and excitement on his face was PRICELESS!! He was like a kid on the first day of kindergarten! Although it did take him awhile to see the shirt it was still funny. This is the three of us with the birthday boy... he's also wearing a pin that says, kiss me it's my birthday... yes he did get a few kisses that day. 
Who DOESN'T have fun at an amusement park? Steph and I have a TON of fun of course!!!
Steph and I got a kick out of this, it's like Where's Waldo on the last page where EVERYONE is dressed up like Waldo... Where's Spencer? 
Finally we found Spud, tell me why his first question was, 'Where's Tawni and DeWy?' Like thanks Spud, it's not like I HAVEN'T see you for 2 years!
Everyone getting some words of encouragement from the MC
Finally, Spud received his certificate. IT'S OFFICIAL!!!
One of the other soldiers looking over his certificate, YES, they've done it!
And I love this picture of Spud, I love that he allowed me to take this picture :)
And there he is! The newest soldier in our family, continuing the tradition of the Ray family.
