Sloane's first birthday party. She shared it with Grandpa Gibson from the Boulder Ward. Gordon Gibson invited us to his house for a joint party/bbq. Grandpa turned 86 and Sloane turned 1 on the same day. She got to try a lot of new things today.
She got down with the honeydew and other good treats before we let her have some cake.
Grandpa Gibson and Sloane shared a cake. Sloane was super stoked when they brought it out.
She exchanged gifts. Sloane's favorite present is a card.
Then the cake...
tasted good.
She dug in with her hands.
The next adventure was a trip up into the air in Gordon's planes. He is a retired pilot for Northwest Airlines and now he lives next to a local airstrip so that he can fly his planes whenever he wants. This is Sloane standing next to the Rocket.
This plane can fly about 300 mph. It is a tight little machine.
Gordon has a bunch of cool toys at his house.
Unfortunately, Sloane didn't get a chance to go up in the Rocket. It was just a two seater--jet fighter style.
Playing in the airplane hangar.
This is the Cardinal. It seats four so we could all go up together in it.
Sloane and Grace in the back seat all buckled-up and ready for take-off. Sloane had to get strapped in because there was some pretty heavy turbulence and she probably would've bounced around without the seat belt.
We had headsets but there wasn't one for Sloane. It was okay because it wasn't too loud up in the sky.
Gordon walking Lance through the basic safety check-up.
Ready to go!!
We started up over Erie, Colorado flying west toward Boulder.
This plane is about 30-40 years old, but it flies nice and smooth. It had been sitting the hangar for a few years so Gordon decided to get it inspected and ready to fly for the birthday party. He was planning to fly to Pennsylvania in a couple of weeks in this plane. That is really far!! It has a range of about 500 miles and a speed of about 160 mph.
Sloane doesn't like seat belts no matter the vehicle. She was really excited about the plane and was jabbering almost the whole flight.
Grace about 2000 feet over Boulder.
This is right on top of the Wimbledon apartment complex in Boulder--our house!
The University of Colorado campus.
Up ahead is the runway on our descent. We slowed to about 60 mph for landing and we used about 2000 feet of runway.
Safely down.
Sloane wanted to play some more but Grace got a little airsick and wanted to throw-up.
Lance right before he went in to the OR to get surgery to repair his hernia. They were about to inject him with a dose of Versed, which is an ultra-fast acting psychoactive drug that they give before sending the patient all the way under. This is the second surgery that Lance has had since we moved to Boulder--the first time he got his gall bladder removed. Hopefully this will be that last hospital visit for a very long time. 
We were the last ones in the hospital that night so Sloane could roam freely throughout the halls. The doctor scheduled the operation for after-hours. That was good of him, but I bet the nurses were a little upset. 
Sloane learning to walk with the push-cart bear. 
She even stopped by Lance's bed for a short visit. 
But she didn't want to stay long.
