We were hoping to save our exclusive photo shoot of the Home Improvement cast for our Reunions Issue on newsstands Oct. 7, but somebody let the cat out of the bag via Twitter (we’re lookin’ at you, Patricia Richardson!), so we decided to give fans a sneak peek of the reunion held last month in Pacific Palisades, Calif.

Though most of the stars had already seen each other two years ago at the TV Land Awards, the shoot was still a big thrill for cast members like Tim Allen (Tim Taylor) and Patricia Richardson (Jill Taylor) because it involved seeing Jonathan Taylor Thomas — a.k.a. Randy Taylor — for the first time since 1998. You read that right: No one had seen hide nor hair of the cherub-faced actor, who turned 30 today, since he left the show. “It was awesome,” said Richardson, who invited her on-screen sons Taylor, Taran Noah Smith, and Zachery Ty Bryan back to her house after the shoot. “You know where you can pick up and it feels like no time has passed at all? And at the same time you look at them and say, ‘How can you possibly be that age because that makes me way old!'”