Grandpa Thornley's Birthday

We celebrated a double birthday for my Grandpa, Robert Thornley (turning 88), and his brother, Ray (turning 85), on March 19th.  All my mom's siblings and their families came, plus some of my Grandma Velda's kids and their kids, as well as some of Ray's kids and their families, too.  It was a big group and the church was definitely necessary as a venue.  We ate a yummy baked potato bar for lunch and then enjoyed a little talent show put on by some of the family who were willing to sign up.  Heath and I played a piano duet (of course) and luckily we weren't too rusty after a few practice runs before it started.  We also enjoyed a big ol' birthday cake made by Aunt Joan and some apple pie cheesecake made by me (another talent I could share).  There was also Aggie ice cream, of course.  My aunt Kathryn snapped all the pictures. (That is certainly her talent and I'm so glad she did because I took none and stole all these from her facebook account.)

Cal didn't stick around for long - she had some lunch and then went
home to my parents' house with Gregg for a nap since she was getting
over a nasty cold bug and wasn't quite up to a whole day of festivities.

Dueting.  We played Brightwood Barn.  It sounds just like you'd
expect a song by that name to sound.

Ray, Grandpa and Grandma enjoying the show.

Ky told about her talent contribution - creating
video compilations of all the old home videos
from Grandpa and Grandma's camcorders,
digitized for all to enjoy.

My mom read some poems that my Grandpa's
grandmother wrote.  Joan was the MC.

Mugs got all the piano talent in our family, I swear.  Her solo was
a Jon Schmidt song and it was gorgeous!

Uncle Ray shared a story his father told him
(and his father told him before, and so on
and so on).

Grandpa shared his testimony.  A fitting end
to the program.

Sam was there, but this is the only pic I saw of him.
(Gregg was there, too, but he spent most of the time holding Sam
while he slept, and then ate a quick lunch and then took Cal home
to sleep.  He was the master of sleep that day, thank heavens!)

I just had to steal this one because it makes me smile.  I don't know
what the joke was, but something was funny!
(My mom's cousin Paul and brother Randal in foreground.)

The whole group.  Whew!  What a posterity!