TOGETHER AGAIN after spending a year apart, Amanda and Levi Thompson hold their 1-year-old daughter, Alexis. She was born two days after her father had to leave for a year in the Middle East.

ARTIST TIM CRANE puts the finishing touches on his sculpture of author Mark Twain. The work will be on permanent display at the Hoodsport Library.

BILL CAMPBELL, clad in full combat gear, is dwarfed by the statue of a giant sword, a leftover from Saddam Hussein's regime. Campbell, a member of the Army National Guard's 81st Brigade, returned from Iraq last month following a five-month tour of duty.

MASON COUNTY welcomed Craig Haugen as its new fire marshal on Friday, April 1.

Calling for cleanup of Callanan

Mike Coleman of Castle & Coleman Logging goes cellular on some timber his mates felled at Callanan Park in Shelton. Clearing by the city and the company will set the stage for improvements to the park. City Commissioner Dawn Pannell says the next step will be a community cleanup of the park which is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. on May 14. Lunch will be provided on that day.

EVER MODEST, new Highclimber recordholder Chris Smith accepts congratulations after another successful vault. He cleared 14'9" Friday at an invitational in Yelm to set a new SHS record.

THESE MASON COUNTY residents are in the cast of Celebrate America! The latest production of Wrinkles of Washington! will be staged this weekend in the Olympia High School Performing Arts Center.

Belfair Elementary School Principal Matt Charlton has been tapped to become the next assistant superintendent of the North Mason School District.

A SET OF three orcas are spotted near Twanoh State Park while a seagull follows their movements from above, presumably waiting for seal scraps. A pod of six whales arrived in the canal about 11 weeks ago.