Some Firsts!

We've been pretty busy in the Curran household over the last few weeks. Several visits with relatives over the last couple weeks have kept us occupied and on the go. During those visits, we have been able to do some cool things like attending Jack's first air-show, going to a petting zoo for the first time and picking out Jack's first pumpkin!
Grandpa Tony visited us this week from Missouri, and Jack had a great time showing him around our area. We went to a petting zoo where Grandpa Tony took Jack on his first ever pony ride! Jack loves animals, and had no fear of horses/ponies at all. The particular pony Jack rode was named "Thunder". This was the fattest pony I have ever seen, and we were asked to stop feeding him the pet feed we bought because he was on a diet! Anyway, Jack and Grandpa seemed to have a great time during the ride. Grandpa Tony knows his way around horses so he probably would have preferred a real wide open horse ride rather than a couple minutes on a pony, but that will have to wait until we head out to visit him in Missouri sometime. Jack will love that too!
Other than the pony, Jack liked feeding and petting the goats, chickens, turkeys, llamas, ducks and all the other animals we met. After we played with the animals, we went and picked out our pumpkins. Grandpa Tony bought Jack his own little Jack sized pumpkin that Jack loves! We didn't have time to get pumpkins last year as we only brought Jack home from Russia 2 days before Halloween.
In addition to the petting zoo, Jack showed Grandpa Tony the ocean and we went to a seafood place where Jack helped crack open some huge crab legs for us. It was a great visit and we can't wait to see Grandpa Tony and the rest of the family in Missouri around the holidays. Thanks for visiting Grandpa!
In addition to Michelle's Dad visiting us, we have also seen my parents a few times in the last month. We all went to the local airshow last weekend and saw the Blue Angels and some other cool air demonstrations. Jack liked the airshow, but some of the jets were so loud that they made him cry. He learned to cover his ears when we would tell him there was a plane coming. Before we left, Jack and I sat in a Blue Angels plane with Jack's cousin Emily and Uncle Jeff. That was a lot of fun and Jack loved touching all of the knobs and buttons in the cockpit of the jet while we were waiting for the picture to be taken. I was bracing myself for him to pull the ejection seat handle and lob us halfway across the airfield, but luckily that never happened. On the walk back to the car when we were leaving the air show, Jack fell asleep in the stoller for the first time ever. He has never fallen asleep anywhere other than his bedroom or car seat, so it was cute to see him passed out in his stroller. Sounds silly, but we have been wanting to see this forever!
In addition to all the fun we have been having with family, Jack's little school/play group started up again this week. We were curious to see how he would react to the school setting. He did well last year, but has grown and changed so much since last school year ended that we really weren't sure what to expect. But in true Jack style, he took everything in stride and after the first few minutes where he was really clingy, he picked up where he left off last year and fit right in. His favorite part of the school time is the playground time which is just how I was back in school! It was good to see him play with the other kids and we look forward to a productive school year.
Guess that's all for now, we'll try not to let the blog go so long without an update next time!