St. John, USVI

We had a great Spring Break in St. John, US Virgin Island.  Our experiences opened our eyes to life on the island.  We had fun snorkeling, building sand castles, jumping and riding waves, seeing iguanas.  We all came back touched by the sun, but not fried!

Cruz Bay - The larger of 2 towns on the island.
Ferries dock here, as do many yachts.   

Our sand castle at Trunk Bay.

We all got to try coconut water - straight out of the coconut!
A guy was just chopping them down right off the beach.  

Katie set up beach bowling with the coconut.
John made the manual ball return. 

Trunk Bay - looking down from North Shore Road

Tortola British Virgin Islands for Katie's #12 birthday.
She had a "Great Dog," so big it had to have a stand.

Our neighbor on the beach - an IGUANA!

Starfish Cottage - on the side of a mountain and in the trees, I mean jungle.  

At Maho Bay Beach, where we swam with the sea turtles and stingrays.

One of the friendly sea turtles captured on our underwater camera.

Bordeaux Mountain overlook restaurant & ice cream stop.

View from Bordeaux Mountain - looking down on Coral Bay (town #2 on the island).

Trunk Bay from the road.

Looking out from the Annaberg Plantation across the strait to the British Virgin Islands.

Annaberg Plantation Ruins - an old sugar, rum, and molasses producer from 1720-1800s. 

Looking down on Cruz Bay on our last evening.

Summer Vacation 2012

As school wrapped up for the year, Katie followed her older siblings and received a scholarship for next year at St. Pius X School. 

As we often do, we immediately headed out of town as soon as the last class and last final was finished. We actually picked up John from Dowling and hit the road!

We began our trip spending a night in Nashville, TN.  Then, we headed across to North Carolina to the Biltmore Mansion in Asheville. 

The next day, we drove to Aunt Chrissie & Uncle Al's house in Seven Lakes, near Pinehurst.  Chandra brought her 3 kids down as well.  Erin and Christine were buddies immediately and would've stayed in the lake overnight if we'd have let them. 

After Mass, Uncle Al took Kyle, John & Katie over to Pinehurst where he works 3 days/week.

  The rest of us went swimming at a park beach just down the street from their house.  

We headed on to UNC and Duke, then up into Virginia for some historical touring.  First stop - Appomattox Courthouse, where General Lee surrendered to General Grant.  John & Annie got right in on the action!

We spent the night with one of Kyle's Amgen co-worker's family outside of Lynchburg, VA and then spent the following day at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home.  

 The next day we visited James Madison's home - Montpelier and then walked around the University of Virginia.

The following day, we visited Woodrow Wilson's birthplace, Washington and Lee University, General Lee's grave site and Virginia Military Institute.  Then, up and over the mountains of West Virginia to Ohio.  Patty, Luke & family were ready for the invasion of the Greening's!

John was very impressed with Dominic's toys, especially his construction tools!

We toured the replica of Columbus' ship, the Santa Maria.  Then, we cooled ourselves in the fountain park.  

The next day, we hiked through some of the Hickory Hills State Park, checking out the caves and picnicking in the park.  

Since we've been home, life has returned to its normal, crazy pace.  

John has been training for cross country and working at AdventureLand Amusement Park. 

Annie has been practicing for Dowling Marching Band and cheerleading.  She detasseled corn for the first few weeks of July and has been in Wisconsin for Cheer Camp this past week. 

Katie Got her cast off right away, had a week long book club and has been at Catholic Youth Camp with Erin this week.  Erin has been on swim team all summer as well.  

John heads to Colorado for Cross Country Camp in 10 days. 

Katie gets braces on her teeth this coming week and then we begin the quick slide towards school which begins on August 20.  

Confirmation, NYC, Musical, Scholarship, Cast

We all attended Annie's confirmation:  Anne Cathleen Elaine.   We are so glad that Grandma Cronley could make it.

John is Annie's sponsor

The Family

The Greening Family and Grandma Cronley

Grandma and Annie at the reception

The next day, Kyle and I flew off to NYC.  We saw it all! Many more photos were taken. 

We spent Mother's Day in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Central Park.

Annie was Goldilocks in the Middle School  Musical. 

Annie won a Presidential Scholarship to Dowling for next year! Yippee!

Katie fell and broke her wrist.  Just trying to be like her mother!

 Next on the agenda, Annie's track championship where she will throw discus and shot put.  Then she graduates 8th grade on Tuesday, May 29.  We will be heading to North Carolina, Virginia and Ohio as soon as school is out!

New Additions to Our Family

Before Braces 

With Braces

John's new wheels - 2003 Honda Civic

A Joe Cronley End of the Month Special!

Kitchen Update,Basketball, Birthday, Easter, Birthday, Birthday!

Here is before & after the Kitchen Update! We brought it forward about 20 years!

We went to the NCAA Women's Regional Basketball games here in Des Moines. We even got to see Brittney Griner's 2-handed DUNK. WOW! Sadly, her Baylor Bears went on to beat ND in the finals the following week.

We celebrated Katies' #11 birthday over Spring Break as well.

We had a great Easter Weekend with John & Suzanne, and Clare & Kate. We colored Easter Eggs and watched Erin in the Wizard of Oz, put on by Ballet Des Moines. Erin was an Emerald City Boy and Enjoyed being a part of this big production.

We also swam at the hotel pool and enjoyed the club lounge as well.

Finally, we celebrated a couple birthdays - Erin's a bit early on Saturday and John's on Sunday. Thanks to Uncle John & Aunt Suzanne for John's big present - A NEW CAR! I can't believe that they gave him a BMW!