More Professional Photos of Ben and Marin

Hi Friends and Family,

We are surviving (barely) without the help of any extended family. It was so wonderful to have my mom and sister here for Ben's birth and then homecoming and then to have Tom's sister Sara and his mom here with us these past couple of weeks. Now it's just the four of us and we are attempting to figure out how to get everything done now that our "slaves" are gone ;) Thank you, so much, to all of our visitors for helping us through the first few weeks with little Ben! Ben has a bit of a cold right now, which is making things a little more challenging, but we're hanging in there. Hopefully I will find time in these next few days to write a post about his birth (from my point of view ;)) and our first few days with him. Until then, please enjoy some more photos taken by my friend, Christie who is an awesome photographer! Here is the link to her blog where you can find a post entitled "Bennett":

http://www.christiehobson.blogspot.com/

More Baby Pictures & Marin's 4th Birthday with Family

Bennett Thomas Cronley!

He has arrived! Coming only one day after his due date, Ben (as we've been secretly calling him for months now!) came after a brief and totally painless labor--says the father. With Tracey's bag of waters breaking in the middle of the night, we were certain that Tracey's doctor was going to start forcing the inducing medications. But not this time. We were very happy to let nature take its course and allow Ben to come on out on his own schedule. Thank you to Grandma Mac and Aunt Cath (who got Ben the a certain bib pictured in the slide show below) for being with us during this special and busy time.
Sixteen hours later, we were holding the newest Cronley and he was ready to eat! Tracey's meat-free diet seemed to be more than adequate, as he was 8 lbs and over 21 inches long. He seems to be a good eater already and has even squeezed in a few winks of sleep in the last 4 days.
As for who he most looks like, I'll leave that up to you. We have noticed that he looks a lot like what Marin looked like as a baby, but with blonde hair. Speaking of blondies, Tracey is well and is holding up amazingly despite impossible hours, the demands of raising an almost 4-year old (Monday!) and keeping the house from looking like a war zone.
Muzzy has really been good with Ben (I promise to get a picture of this) and Cal is relatively unchanged...unfortunately.
Enjoy the photos, happy 4th and stay tuned for more.

First Trip, New Job

I have not written in a while and though I have had great plans for loads of amazing stories, none have made it. Being away for a while has given me the chance to think and a little bit of the loneliness that is somehow related or required to inspire my blog updates. Don't feel bad--after reading, I'm certain you won't.
Last month, I left from Camarillo and in a little more than a week, I'll be back. In the meantime, I've been doing what in the Carrier Navy is called Port Calls. In the "logistics" Navy, this is work.
To be sure, I am working. I've logged thousands of miles and hours and even a few decent landings (carrier landings are not as well-appreciated). I have flown more hours in the past month than I did in the previous 6 combined. And, of course, I'm away from home, which is particular hard given Tracey's pregnancy and Marin's new found sass. Her reign is coming to an end soon...in more way than one. The King is due in only 5 weeks! Tracey reports that all is well and though I know it is, it is only because she is working harder than any women in week 35 of a pregnancy should.
So what have I been up to? Since leaving, I've landed in Newfoundland, Spain, Italy, Germany, Greece, Romania, Kuwait, Diego Garcia, Thailand, Japan and South Korea. By next week, I will add Guam and Australia to that list.
What are we doing? I've been site seeing. However, the plane carries people and cargo. We carry it from A to B and we do it at a speed that though not fast, is fast enough. That's it. It's a simple mission that happens to be worldwide. It is a lot of fun, it is exciting and I look forward to seeing more places...just not until I spent some time at home. And next time, I am going to bring a camera.

Spring 2010

Spring is definitely here in Camarillo, although as I write this it is currently quite foggy! But inevitably the fog will lift and it will be sunny again this afternoon. I just wanted to share some pictures with everyone as I keep getting requests for house and belly shots :) Sorry there aren't too many belly shots, but rest assured, it it HUGE.
Just to update you all with what has been going on since we moved in, here is a quick run-down. Marin and I moved in while Tom was still in Fort Worth, TX finishing up his training. He got home on April 2nd, just in time for Easter. He was here for a good 3 weeks and then decided he had had enough and decided to go on a 38 day detachment. Just kidding - his options were to go now or in September and we decided that it would be better to go now so that he can be here for the first few months with the little man on the way. He left on Saturday and will be in Italy until mid May and then will go to Japan from there and be there until June 1st. So far he reports that the flying, although very slow,long and exhausting, is pretty fun and he's already seen some amazing places! Hopefully he will have a chance to post some updates from overseas.
In the meantime, Marin and I are holding down the fort here. Marin is doing really well at her new pre-school. She is also taking ballet and swim lessons and loving every minute of both. She is hilarious in the water! I can't believe how comfortable she is -- doing flips underwater and falling in intentionally from the side pretending like she's falling onto a bed with a ton of soft pillows. She loves to sing and play "school".
We LOVE our new church, Padre Serra. It is relatively new and is definitely one of the prettiest "new" style churches I have ever been in. The music is amazing and everybody is SOOOO nice. We've found the same to be true out in the community at large here as well. We are really loving Camarillo and are hoping we can stay here for awhile. There is a squadron right next to Tom's new squadron at Pt Mugu that has a couple of S-3s (the plane Tom flew in the fleet) attached to it. Every time I see one of them I want to cry! I love that airplane. Tom is trying to figure out a way to get to fly that funny looking plane again after his time in the C-130 is up. We'll see what happens!! Hope everyone is doing well. Enjoy the pics! FYI - if you click on the "view larger images" link, it'll take you to shutterfly where I have put descriptions of the pics --- some of them require some explaining (ie - Tom's hideous mustache!)

Click here to view these pictures larger

4D Video

Below is the video from our latest ultrasound...in 4D!

March Madness

Hello to you blog readers out there (if there are any of you left since it's been so long between posts)! We are still "homeless" but residing at my mom's in Mission Viejo and you'd think that with a "built in babysitter" there would be more time to send out updates, but this just is not the case. We have been busy.
Here's a quick recap of the past 3 months. We sold the house in Mississippi (THANK GOD!!) and Tom spent the better part of January back in Meridian dealing with the buyers and getting the house all ready, not to mention continuing to fly and finish out his job there. He had been back and forth between MS and CA so many times that I've lost count. I should mention, however, that he did drive both of our cars out here on two separate occasions, all by himself! I suppose I owe him big time for that. Once we closed on the house in MS, we started seriously looking for a house out here and found one we LOVE, relatively quickly. We made an offer and if all continues to go smoothly we should close on March 24th. We are so excited --- it's a great house with a huge yard (and pool!) and on a clear day you can see the ocean on the horizon from the kitchen window!!!!
We've been able to spend some time up in Camarillo to get a better feel for our new town. Tom has been up there for 2 weeks now at his new squadron, getting ready to head off to C-130 training in Fort Worth for the next few weeks. It's going to be a bit of a transition for him, both in the air and on the ground. So far he's having a hard time getting past the "air-force like" formalities and mentalities of this squadron, but I'll let him explain more about that since most of it just goes right over my head :)

Since we have been back in CA (3 months now!), I have been coaching part-time the masters group of my old swim team here in MV, the Mission Viejo Nadadores. It has been such a blast for me. First of all, my old coach (Coach Rose) who coached me all though high school (bless his heart) is still the head coach here and it is soooo much fun for me to see him on deck each day and know the absolute torture that those poor kids in the water are enduring and not have to be one of them! The masters program has 200 swimmers, which in contrast to the 3 masters swimmers I coached while in Meridian is quite remarkable. The team offers 5 different masters practices each day!! I coach 2 of those 5 and at each practice there are about 15-20 swimmers of all levels and abilities. It is so much fun for me to work with so many eager swimmers who are there because they REALLY want to be there. In addition to this, Marin has been doing swim lessons with the team too. Coaching at the team that I once swam for feels weird in a lot of ways, but even weirder is bringing my daughter to learn how to swim in the same pool that I learned how to swim in!! CRAZY. I will be sad for both of us when we have to say goodbye to the Mission Viejo Nadadores in a few weeks, but hopefully we can both find some aquatic activities to keep us going in Camarillo.
Marin is also eagerly awaiting the arrival of her baby brother. We have a little more than 3 months to go and even though I really miss my longs runs, bike rides, egular pilates and the ability to consume alcohol, I really do need these next 3 months to get ready. A lot has to happen both inside and outside the womb between now and then!! I have a feeling the time will fly by. This pregnancy has been equally as easy (however very different) as Marin's. I've been swimming and doing light cardio 4-5 times per week, eating a lot and feeling great. I crave anything sweet, particularly ice cream and DONUTS and if you know me well, the donut thing is an absolute anomaly for me. I don't think I had touched a donut in 20 years prior to this pregnancy. The other weird "craving", which I'm kind of in love with, is that I cannot listen to enough U2. I don't know what it is about that band, but this baby cannot get enough of them --- anything from Rattle and Hum to Pop (I know, not the greatest album, but it'll do for this little guy!) to the latest album. I think I'm growing a little Bono inside of me or perhaps a mini Edge :) Either way it's A OK by me.
I will try to post some new pics soon! I hope everyone is doing well, staying safe, happy and healthy.

Long Overdue Update

Since I find myself with a few spare moments and a "built-in babysitter" (thanks Mom!) I am finally able to post an update. There is much to report and a handful of pictures as well, so I'll just hammer it out. In November we made a quick trip to Chicago and Southbend for a mini Cronley get together and to see Notre Dame lose to Navy (AGAIN!) at home. On the way there, we had a pretty funny experience -- as we are boarding the plane, the Pilot greeted Marin and then asked her if she would like to sit in the cockpit for a few minutes. Of course she said yes and the next thing I know, he plucked her right up and put her in the seat and told me to take pics if I wanted. Tom was quite irritated, to say the least, that his 3 year old daughter has managed to sit in the cockpit of a 737 before he has!!









A few weeks later, we decided last minute to take a road trip to Kansas City to spend Thanksgiving with my sister and her husband. We had a great time and thanks to Cath and Matt's good friends we managed to score some tickets to see the #1 Jayhawks play in Allen Fieldhouse. It was Tom and Marin's first Kansas Basketball game and it brought back a ton of memories for me :) We also got to meet up with our old friends, Matt and Allison Wilkening and their two sons Eli and Asher for a morning in the park. Marin was very excited to see her old buddy Eli!










Here are some pics of our last few weeks in Meridian:
Although we have not yet sold the house in Mississippi, Marin, Muzzy and I have made the move out to California! We decided that it made more sense to just come out for Christmas and stay rather than fly back to Mississippi after the holidays for a few weeks and then come right back out to the GOLDEN STATE. So we will be residing with my mom for the next couple of months. Tom will join us next week for Christmas and New Years and then he will be back in Mississippi to do a debt in El Centro (this is totally confusing, I know) for work and then one LAST TIME GOING TO THE CARRIER in early Feb. Then he will make the permanent move to CA. It feels great to be back in California and to have survived the three and half years in Meridian. I'm grateful for the friends that we made and the different experiences we had, but mostly I am just grateful to be back in a place that really feels like home. I apologize for the ramblings (Tom is much better at this than I am!) -- I blame it on this awful cold I have and not being able to "cure it" with my usual concoction of Robitussin and a hint of Johnnie Walker Black. UGH!!

More Bahamas

Before I can continue on with more updates (trips to Notre Dame, the upcoming move, etc), I have to load these pictures. By the way, if you're not a fan of a 30 something in a Shamrock Speedo, prepare to be offended.

Bahamas Teaser

Here are some pictures of our time in the Bahamas. The other folks are either Rob & Leea (whom you probably recognize) or The MacCallums--Scott, Betsy and their son, Charlie.
What a trip! Scott's uncle let us use his home on Eleuthera Island. The weather wasn't ideal, but there were no hurricanes either.
We took only a few photos here with more coming...I have to steal them off of Rob & Leea's camera. It was simply amazing. The island has shells on it like we have rocks in Mississippi. We came home with 3 or 4 bags full of conch, sand dollars, starfish and other neat shells. We snorkled on the beach in front of the house and saw bright fish, sea turtles, barracuda and even shark. It was very rural and had a 3rd world feel to it. We bought jugs of water, showered in rain water that had been stored and were without TV and internet for the duration...I did watch the end of the ND vs. Southern Cal game however. The nights were as amazing as the days with the stars coming out by the billions. One night alone I spotted 10 shooting stars! The people were friendly and didn't seem to mind that I was using the Atlantic in lieu of a shower. More photos to come!

Great Fun in Seaside

August in California - Pictures

Here are a bunch of pictures from our trip out to California earlier this month. Enjoy!

In Case You're Not A Meridian Star Subscriber...

August Pre-Travel Update

This summer is seemingly running right passed us. Since our last update, we all made the trip to Cleveland, MS and Delta State University for Mississippi Long Course State Swim Meet. From Thursday at 2pm until Sunday at 7pm, it was back and forth across the pool for Tracey's best swimmers. There were lots of highlights, but my favorite for sure was watching one of Tracey's swimmers win the 100 Butterfly in comeback fashion.

Surprisingly, Cleveland had a couple of good little places to eat and some crazy terrain that could only be described as a bayou.



On Saturday, Tracey and Sara coordinated our very first garage sale to get rid of some stuff before we put the house up for sale. Things were priced to sell. Tracey proudly cleared out all of it (after a post-sale trip to Salvation Army) and netted $400+. Whohoo! One highlight was when an elderly woman wondered if we had any men's clothes, since her grandson was "pert near, nekked." I ran inside and came back with jeans, and long sleeve shirt and two swim suits and sold them for $10!



And now having just returned from Jacksonville, FL from another trip to the carrier, we are packing our bags for Southern California to find out about Ventura County and look at some places--not to mention take in a Jackson Browne concert, hit Knotts Berry Farm and, of course, take in the sights at Disneyland.
This Fall I was trying to coordinate a flyover of the Notre Dame versus Washington football game and things were looking pretty good. But this week I found out that it is for sure not going to happen. To make up for that, I flew over the house tonight and since I had warned Tracey, she was able to get this little clip.

Where has the summer gone?

It seems like since summer started the days have just flown by. June was ridiculously HOT and shockingly, so far July has been a bit cooler. Grandma C has been visiting for the past couple of weeks and it has been great having her around. Not only has she been entertaining Marin, but she's been doing yard work, helping with meals and laundry, helping maintain a bit of sanity and of course, squeezing in a few minutes of Fox News viewage each day :) Aunt Sara is coming to town again today for another weekend visit!

A big portion of each day for me is spent on the pool deck and in-between morning practice and afternoon practice I've been doing my best to teach Marin how to swim and keep myself in shape. My team is doing really well. We had a "last chance" meet in Tuscaloosa this past weekend and had a few more swimmers qualify for the big state meet, which is July 23 - 26 in Cleveland, MS. It's TAPER TIME right now and the kids are getting really excited! Tom was able to meet me there as he did a X-Country flight with one of his students who is now becoming an instructor, so that was pretty cool! Even though I had to spend most of each day at the swim meet, we were able to check out a couple of good restaurants and at least enjoy civilization (aka Target and Starbucks) at least a little. On an unrelated note, a photographer from the paper came out to practice the other day because she was told to get a "weather" photo. We had one ridiculously "cool" day this week (it was in the low 80's, which is absolutely unheard of for July) and for some reason she decided to take a pic of me helping one of the younger swimmers with his goggles. Here's a link to the page. Maybe someday we'll get some press coverage for actually being a good swim team, but for now, I guess we'll take what we can get.

It's been three weeks exactly since the dreaded bike ride that resulted in my left elbow being broken. How many people can say that they have broken their left elbow twice in a span of 24 years? I feel like such an idiot! Luckily, this time around is MUCH better than last time. I only had a cast on for 5 days and I'm functioning almost normally with little or no pain. My doctor, who also happens to be one of my masters swimmers, told me I could try to swim this week, so I did -- it was not pretty! BUT, I have set my mind on competing in a triathlon in Tuscaloosa, AL on August 22nd, so I have 5 weeks to get ready! I can't get back on the bike for another couple of weeks, but hopefully that won't be too bad, as long as Tom isn't there trying to push me over ;)


This is the first year that Marin and I have been in Mississippi for the month of July. In the past, Tom has shipped us back to California so that we can have a break from the heat and the sticks. But honestly, even though I would always rather be in California, it hasn't been too bad! Staying busy and having visitors helps a lot and knowing that soon enough we'll be gone from here helps too :)

Here are a couple of pics of Muzzy's new hair cut. It pains us to have to do this to her, but the heat is just too extreme to keep her hair long during the summer. The last one is from the fourth of July at Bonita Lakes -- it's a shot of Marin with one of my favorite (and definitely HER favorite) swimmers, Thompson. Yes, he has a mohawk!

Happy Birthday Marin #3!

Father's Day, Injury & Triathlons

Last weekend, Tracey and Marin treated me to a trip to Madison, MS. We like this area for a number of reasons, but we were especially excited to ride our bikes on the Natchez Trace--a 400 miles roadway that splits the state and has some sort of historical significance. It was a great weekend of fun and excessive heat.
We're going on a crazy string of hot days in a row.
As most of you know, Tracey fell off her bike when she and I were enjoying a ride on Thursday. She broke her radius right at the elbow and will be in a soft cast and sling until Tuesday. She'll be back up and fully healthy in just a couple more weeks. Being one armed has not slowed her down as she didn't miss any practices for her swim team.
One thing she did miss, however, was the Race of Grace triathlon that we both were planning on competing in this weekend in Philadelphia, MS. It was incredibly hot--even at the 8am start it was in the mid-80s--and it did involve the longest bike ride of my life, I had a lot of fun and finished second in my age group. It was a great workout and it felt good not losing to my wife. And as a warm-up to her birthday next weekend, Marin went to an all pink, "Pink-a-licious" birthday party and had a great time. Enjoy the photos!

Catching Up

The past couple of weeks have been busy! While Tom was at the boat, my mom and sister were here to keep me company and to help me out with managing Marin, coaching, maintaining household/sanity. Our neighborhood "nanny", Ms Johnnie Nell, fell and broke her shoulder a couple of weeks ago :( She is doing fine and will make a full recovery, but needless to say it has taken it's toll on her and on us! We miss having her take such good care of Marin!! So anyhow, it was very nice to have some family here to help out. We had a great visit and as always, the time went to quickly. My sister and I did a little side trip while they were here in the south. For my birthday, Cath had bought us two tickets to see No Doubt in Atlanta, so we took a quick road trip to GA for the concert -- it was fantastic and we had a blast!! and yes, we did tour the CNN headquarters, but were disappointed to learn that Anderson Cooper is actually based out of New York (actually, I could care less, but it seemed that every other woman on the tour was DEVASTATED). Thankfully we did not run into Nancy Grace either because I think I would have had to punch her -- can't stand that woman! Tom returned from the boat on Thursday and then we left Friday to head up to Memphis for a weekend of swimming. I had 7 kids actually make the trek up there for the meet -- it was great! The meet went well and it was especially nice that it was a VERY well managed meet and we were actually done each day before 1pm! This left us plenty of time to hang out with our dear friends AmyD and Nic Morrison and their sweet kids, Peter and Lily. We had a great time! Now it's back to reality and possibly time to start doing some research on the Camarillo, Oxnard, Ventura, CA areas :) I am so excited to be within walking/running/biking distance of the ocean, and the Pacific Ocean at that and to be within a short driving distance of my mom's house and where I grew up and also wine country and the bay area and family in Northern California!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh, big sigh of relief.
Here are some pics of the past few weeks. Can you pick out the one where Marin freaked out after having a potty training "accident" (#2) in the bathtub?! I'm so proud of her for instinctively knowing that she needed to get out of the water, any way possible!
Hope everyone is doing well!

Exciting News!

This week, while aboard the Navy's newest aircraft carrier, the USS George HW Bush, I received notice that I needed to contact the detailer in charge of my follow-on orders. As you might imagine, calling someone from a ship, involves the use of a satellite phone and an extremely annoying, but wholly necessary pause after each transmission, to allow the data to travel to space and back. After miraculously getting a hold of someone who prides himself on being hard to contact, I found out that the Cronley's of Meridian will soon and once again be the Cronley's of Southern California! I've been assigned to fly the C-130 Hercules out of Point Mugu, California with VR-55. We are extrmely excited about our move back to the West Coast which will occur March of next year.
Now about the C-130, it has been around a while, it's somehow not as pretty as the S-3 and Tracey's dad flew it in Vietnam! Also, in case they need to do this testing on it again, I think they'll chose the right guy. Thanks for all the prayers!


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Quick Trip to Minneapolis

This past weekend I took a very quick trip to the beautiful city of Minneapolis to visit a great friend from college who is currently 33 weeks pregnant with her second child and on strict bed rest. On top of that, her mother was just recently diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia. Needless to say Jeanine was in serious need of some distractions, so my college roommate, Adrienne (another great friend!) and I decided to fly in from opposite ends of North America to pay her and her family a visit. The weekend was full of laying around, eating and drinking wine (for Ade and me at least) while Jeanine's husband Mike basically waited on us hand and foot. All three of us girls and Mike swam together at KU, so we always have fun talking about the 'good old days' in Kansas. It was wonderful to get caught up, at least a little, with some very good friends. Anyhow, the weekend went by way too fast and we look forward to getting everybody together again, under happier circumstances, soon! Here are a couple of pics - the first one is from this weekend (Ade, Jeanine and me with Jeanine and Mike's son Nolan -- the squirmy, but darling, 3 year old!) and the second one is from a swim meet (I think Big 8's) our Freshman year! Can you pick us out???
Meanwhile, Tom and Marin were kept company by Aunt Sara who came to the big city of Meridian for the weekend with her two little dogs, Tina and Pele. They had a great weekend too!
This week the swim team started the "Summer Schedule" which means we are now swimming every morning at 6am at the outdoor 50 meter pool here in town. The 5:30am get-up routine is a hard adjustment, but I do really enjoy coaching in the morning as the sun comes up. If we could just get the schedulers at the squadron to stop scheduling Tom for early morning flights so that he can be at home with Marin in the morning, that would be great. Yesterday, just to prove a point, Tom brought Marin to work with him while I was coaching. She got to help him do some waving in the shack (you'll have to ask Tom to explain this) where she learned how to say "Roger Ball" and then she assisted him in giving a brief that he had to do for a later flight. Don't worry, I picked her up before the flight took off, but nonetheless, I think she had a lot more fun going to work with Daddy then she has had in the past when I've taken her to the pool with me. Future pilot, perhaps? Gosh, I hope not --- I've done enough worrying about pilots in my lifetime!!
Next up, my mom and sister arrive tomorrow! They will be here for a week! Cath and I are taking a quick road trip to Atlanta on Friday to see her favorite band, No Doubt, play and then we plan to tour the CNN headquarters on Saturday. I don't think too many people would pair those two things together ;)
We're really looking forward to having them here!!