Adios, Omar

The Giants won't bring Omar back for another year. He's been one of my favorites to cover and such a class act always, not to mention a wizard of a shortstop. These are some fun pictures from last summer at Miller Park in Milwaukee during the Bonds home run chase. At age 41, he plans to keep playing next year somewhere. We will stay in touch.

More China pics

My friend, Elaine, from the Seattle AP office, snapped these photos of me in action after the gold medal baseball game. Can you tell how happy I am to almost be done with the Olympic assignment? WHEW! China seems so long ago now.

New addition to the family!

My cousin, Katie, had a baby boy today! Rocco James Smith was born at 11:34 a.m. and weighed in at 8 pounds, 4 ounces. He's such a good baby and we were thrilled to get to meet him on his birthday! :-) Even though technically Rocco is my cousin once removed, Josh and I get to be aunt and uncle and the same will go for Katie and Kyle to be an aunt and uncle of our baby. They will have fun together. :-)

Suzie's wedding at Yosemite National Park

Suzie's wedding at Yosemite was the perfect spot and it was such a beautiful few days, not too hot! My parents joined us for a great weekend full of exploring and fun. We did a great 7-mile hike and walk to this waterfall.

Old photos

Evan and I had fun scanning some old photos of my Grandpa Gordon and Grandma Carol, who was an Apple Blossom queen. We want to make sure we have these photos for the future. The top picture is from my Grandpa's Wenatchee High School yearbook.













World War II pictures: Granpda is on right in group shot, left side in the other. The bottom picture is him with a young man after Grandpa rescued him from an avalanche, seeing his ski pole sticking up while skiing at Mission Ridge. The boy was already blue when Grandpa got to him.









Below: This is our great grandpa, Russell T. Congdon, Grandpa Gordon's Dad. He is in Lake Chelan at the bottom.

Lake cabin a long time ago

Check out this picture of the Lake Chelan cabin from the early 1950s! No neighbors at all. We sure do have a great cove!

Surprise, surprise!

Junior, as we call our baby, wouldn't cooperate in the ultrasound and show its parts, so it seems we will be surprised come early February! FUN! The baby does appear to have a big brain, though. :-)