Dad Allen’s site should have even more pictures up from this visit.

We flew back to Seattle to surprise Dad for his retirement party.  Only Ma knew.  So we also got to surprise Becky, Grandpa, GrandDad, Grandma, Uncle Bob and Aunt Dee!  We had great fun!  We actually needed a place to rest our tired bodies and party prep after we sat on the tarmac that morning for 3 hours (pilot slept through his alarm) so we went to Grandma and GrandDad’s before the grand unveiling at the party and surprised them and Aunt Dee early at the house.

Check out more photos after the jump!

And check out my pop’s new hobby: http://www.daveandjanallen.net/

Tina flew out to Boston to celebrate her big 3-0 birthday!  We had a great time.  Though I did have one late night (really, actually an early 2am-4am morning) timepoint in lab I had to take while she was here, so she got that fun MIT experience.  Plus I did put her to work one day doing math for me.  BUT we did have fun as well.   We visited 3, read ‘em THREE, breweries while she was here.  One to celebrate each decade of her fabulous years thus far.  We’re not so great at taking pictures and we only remembered to take our picture at the Harpoon Brewery.  AND I don’t have that picture yet – it’s on Tina’s camera.  I’ll post it, if it’s cute enough, when I get it.  But we went to Cambridge Brewing Company (really known as CBC, to those in the know) for lunch one day.  We went on the Harpoon Brewery tour (with a tasting afterward) after we saw the Shepard Fairey exhibit at the ICA (it was AWESOME) and then finally we went to a JFJ staple, Beerworks.  It was a great weekend and I was so thankful that Tina chose to visit me to celebrate her big day!  Thanks Tina!  And HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

A family (and friends) reunion to celebrate the life of our amazing Doris Brown, my grandmother-extraordinaire.

This is my grandparent’s beautiful yard and the site of the celebration.  The flower gardens are “Doris’ Memory Garden”.

This is my handsome grandfather.

And his brother, my Uncle Dick.

My cute pops!

So many good friends and family came out for the day!  From near and far.  It was a great day and I know Grandma loved every minute of it.  Here are buckets of pictures, we’ll start off with Wayne saying something smart, I’m sure. 

Tina, Mark and Liam… be forewarned… there are a lot of Liam pics in here! And I only put about 2% of the ones I took of him.  And of course all of his pics were super cute!  He’s just started taking steps on his own.

Sad Liam. (double earache and getting his 12th tooth!)

Less sad Liam.

He can see himself in the lens and is now starting to make faces at himself.

Happy Liam.

Loving the croquet set.

Liam had some hard times this day.

But he did love to see himself in the lens.

Happy Liam again!  Aw, Happy Thornton boys!

BFF:

(Josh is very certain there are 10.   Becky doesn’t believe him.)

These are baby tiny kittens that my folks rescued from under the highway after the party.

And then a few last shots before the red-eye flight home to Boston:

Me and Ma.

Me and Grandpa.

The Three of Us.