Marin Sings!

Where's Muzzy?

While most of the Cronley's have been in California, one notable member has not. Before you get too sad, you should know that our good friends, the Myers (or as I will refer to them Saint Rob & Saint Leea) have not only been keeping her, but treating to runs, walks, trips and boat rides. Muzzy is never one to hide her emotion and I think photo tells how much fun she had.

At the Santa Ana Zoo

Saturday we all enjoyed an afternoon at the zoo. Marin laughed at the monkeys, fed the sheep and rode this tortoise. We capped off the afternoon with a light meal (including a giant cupcake) and a ride on the carousel.
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Quick Marin Fix

We have been most lazy with updating this blog since leaving for vacation, but here are a few quick pics of Marin for the dedicated Marin fans out there (mostly Aunt Sara). By the way, Aunt Sara, Marin is now obsessed with the movie Cinderella and specifically, the fairy godmother, so we of course had to remind her that you are her godmother and of course you are now her FAIRY GODMOTHER...... just so you know ;)



Here is Marin with her two second cousins, Emily and Natalie --- can you tell who is least equipped for cool weather?






Marin and her beloved Pooh Bear

Happy Fourth of July!

We made it to Southern Caifornia. Our celebrating of the holiday included a concert of the Pacific Symphony with Don McLean! It was a great show. Here is a picture of our picnic prior to the show.

Short and Cute

Weekend in Biloxi

Once again, the Meridian Sharks dragged us out of Meridian to discover more of Mississippi and to attend the TNT Summer Beach Blast Long Course Invitational. This time we traveled south to the the Gulf Coast, namely Biloxi. Since I was five years old, Biloxi has been the destination for Andy and the rest of the Dampeers for two weeks out of the year. It was two weeks that I dreaded and often threatened that I was going to make the trek with them. I never did.
With Katrina safely in the rearview mirror, the Mississippi (and Alabama) coast looks good. I have no idea what it look like previously, but some things are looking good and there are construction crews on pretty much everything else. The sand is nice, bright white! Marin loves pointing at the gulf and stating, "BEACH!" with extra emphasis on the "CH" part. She was a little suspicious of the sand in between her toes..."Dirty!" she kept saying.
While Tracey has been busy with the meet, Marin and I have kept ourselves busy with going to the BEACH! and also the pool here at the hotel. We also visited Keesler Air Force base--she can never get enough of looking at old airplane static displays. There also is a huge mall here that Marin was ready to declare her new residence. I finally dragged her away with a little bribery. Mass at Our Lady of Fatima was nice, and it was kept under the one hour barrier (a rare feat down here).
Now Marin is taking a little cat nap and we're going to be checking out..not without hitting the pool one more time.

Tri-Team for the Kansas 70.3

Tracey did the swim portion of her team's 1/2 Ironman (Iron-woman?). They did really well & finished 2nd in the all woman division.
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Weekend in Vicksburg, MS

We've been in Vicksburg this weekend for 3-day marathon of a swim meet. Tracey is head coach of the Meridian Swim Association.
Although Marin didn't compete, we couldn't keep her out of the water. Average temperature for the weekend was the setting for London Broil. Vicksburg is a pretty cool, historic and scenic city. We had fun!
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It's Gonna Be A Hot One!

This Spring we have enjoyed cooler than normal tempertures. All that seems to be coming to an end. It was a good run. Pack lightly if you're coming to visit!
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A week barely worth mentioning......

Tom has been gone 9 days now and let's just say that we have all missed him terribly. My poor mom came out for a visit to help us out, but it turns out that, quite frankly, we were beyond help! To sum it up the week consisted of a lot of driving all over the south, long and sleepless nights with a dog who has horrible diarrhea (self-induced, might I add --- eating an entire bag of dental chews -- including the bag, is not recommended), a terrible spill in the neighbor's driveway chasing after the dog which resulted in a quick trip to the ER for x-rays for me (everything is fine), Muzzy "clotheslining" Marin with her leash on the driveway which resulted in Marin having a huge bump on the back of her head and a red "ligature" like mark on her neck (after a good cry Marin is totally fine and still eager to give Muzzy lots of kisses --aahhhh, kids and forgiveness) and oh, did I mention the dog's diarrhea --- yes, it persists, but she is now on some good medication. You know, I was kind of feeling sorry for us and then I found a few minutes to sit down and read some friend's blogs and well, everything came into perspective. When you have a chance (and a full box of Kleenex readily available), click on The Wilkening Web link to the right and read their Cancer Blog from start to finish. You will be so inspired by little Eli and his fight with leukemia and blown away by his parent's ability to so beautifully articulate in writing what they all are going through. Please keep them all in your prayers.

PS: Thank you Gramma Mac for your help and everybody, please don't let us forget to have a fence installed before Tom's next trip! :)

PPS: Does anybody want a 6 month old Goldendoodle? She's very cute and EXTREMELY well-behaved ;) Just kidding.

USS John C. Stennis

While Tracey, Marin, Calvin and Muzzy have been suffering through the ides of May, I've been aboard the carrier off the coast of San Diego. Here's a photo of me "waving" aboard a T-45 Goshawk for a student's first ever landing at the boat. I'm now back in San Diego and figuring out how to make this our home again.
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Golf at Dancing Rabbit

On a nice, lazy Sunday afternoon, Greg and I played the Oaks at Dancing Rabbit. The whole family had been in Choctaw, MS this past weekend for the Ball and to get out of town, if only for a couple of days.
The round was close the whole way until Greg narrowly nipped me by 17 strokes to finish with an 85. On this hole, we both nabbed pars and for the moment I felt worthy of playing on a course much beeter than my game.
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Fun at the Hotel Pool

Marin's favorite so far has been the "hot, hot" pool. So we're here enjoying the sun (storms moved through in the night) and laughing about the crazy night.
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Goshawk Ball

We're at the Goshawk Ball! Marin is with Aunt Sara and Uncle Greg. It's fun so far.
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Muzzy's new 'doo!

Here is a quick shot of Muzzy and her new hairdo. Muzzy likes it so much that she ate through part of the wall to celebrate.
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Nice Thursday Morning

Go Jayhawks!

We've officially gone cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs over the Jayhawks' National Title run. Marin is in the act as she predicted both the Memphis win over UCLA and the Jayhawks sound trouncing of the Tarheels. Rock Chalk!

Disney Video Part I

Gift from Uncle Kevin