Orchards: On June 1, when Marine Cpl. Cody Morrison returned from Afghanistan to Twentynine Palms Base in San Bernardino County, Calif., his wife, Tiffany, was there to greet him — along with their unborn child. Their friend Brittany Hout snapped this dramatic and emotional photo of their reunion. “There is so much sacrifice and loss in these wars. I really felt this picture shows all that and yet all the joy that emerges from all the sacrifice,” Cody’s mother, Kari Morrison, said at the time. (Tiffany is gripping a sandal in one hand because it fell off her foot during her race to greet Cody). We’re pleased to report that Cody and Tiffany are doing fine, and so is baby Cali Rose Morrison, born July 13. Cody is a graduate of Heritage High School and Tiffany a graduate of Camas High School; they live in California now but Kari, “their local anchor,” lives in Orchards. “Cody will be discharged from the Marine Corps on April 15, 2012,” Kari told us earlier this month. “From there, they will be moving to Bend, Ore., where Cody will immediately be enrolled in the helicopter pilot program at Central Oregon Community College.”

Camas: Pacific Crest Academy was flooded with miniature saints on Nov. 1 as it celebrated All Saints Day with its annual Saints Museum. This year, that meant 80 students dressing as the saints they studied in October, from the popular (St. Nicholas, St. Patrick) to the obscure (St. Winifred, St. Margaret of Cortona). In this photo, the Rev. Matthew Oakland visits with minisaints (left to right) Campbell Deringer (St. Rose of Lima), Jane Brotherton (St. Jane), Hannah Jo Hammerstrom (St. Clare) and Anna Mooney (St. Anne).

Rose Village: Jeckleton, third from left, a patchy, off-kilter but highly ambitious fellow, won the Old Apple Tree Festival scarecrow contest Oct. 1. Creativity, originality and the ability to scare a crow were the judging criteria. Jeckleton hails from the Rose Village neighborhood and the Carstenen family.

Central Park: Don’t let the photo fool you — Mac Potts knows exactly what he’s doing at that piano. The Washington State School for the Blind alumnus was on hand to play as part of a 125th anniversary banquet for the Washington State School for the Blind. Fellow graduates Brent Gjevre and Nick Baker joined Potts in a “three grands” performance, with three grand pianos going at once.

Rose Village: The eastern wall of the St. Johns IGA store was blank in July, as you can see in this photo of (from left) Colin Cushman, Jenney Pauer and Greg Bee. They’re volunteers with Urban Abundance, a grassroots group working for a sustainable food system. It didn’t take long for hundreds of volunteers, including many kids from local Boys & Girls Clubs, to create a colorful mural here.

Fairgrounds: It was pretty sweet when the annual Gardner Market raised $950 for the American Cancer Society on June 6. Every year, students at the Gardner School of Arts & Sciences build, host and manage market booths featuring their own crafts, wares and foods. This photo shows eight-year-old entrepreneur Isabel Peters raising money via a classic kid business: the lemonade stand.

Camas: In 1934, she was an outstanding student at Camas High School who won an award for meritorious service. Somehow she never picked up her diploma — but that didn’t prevent Lila Robertson Trammell from raising a family, serving on the Camas City Council and volunteering at the Vancouver Veterans Affairs Medical Cetner. In February, the Camas school board awarded Robertson a long-overdue, honorary diploma. Trammell is 94.

Hudson’s Bay: That Doug Wilson, he’s always down in the dirt. Actually, it’s his job: Wilson, an archaeologist with the Pacific Northwest Regional Office of the National Park Service, won an NPS service award for archaeology in April. Here we see him digging in the dirt (and playing to the camera) at our own Fort Vancouver, but Wilson won the award for his work as principal investigator of the Station Camp/Middle Village site at the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon.

Salmon Creek: The flapjacks at a March 12 “Freedom Flapjack Breakfast” weren’t really free. That’s because the event, at Applebee’s on Northeast Hightway 99, was raising money for the new nonprofit Clark County Veterans Assistance Center. Here, executive director Milada Allen, who’s also president of the Felida Neighborhood Association, parties with Uncle Sam (Jerry Sallee) and Elvis (Mark Stephens).

Old Evergreen Highway: Mersedes Mendez takes a look at microscopic critters in this photo that captured the essence of the Columbia Springs Environmental Education Center’s family field trip on June 4.