Alex Fritch and his sister Ana empty the water from their boots after splashing in the puddles near the tulips during the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. "The flowers are incidental. The mud and the puddles are far more interesting," say their mother, who has brought the siblings there the past five years. The kids have come to enjoy playing in the puddles so much, that the family times its visits for after a rain, bringing multiple changes of clothes. This was change number two on the day.
1st Officer Brian Moynihan, right, reacts as Cpt. Claude Tirman jokes about his preference for a sign addressing retirement security during an informational picket of approximately 300 Alaska Airlines pilots outside the Alaska Air Group shareholders meeting at the Museum of Flight. The pilots were gathered to draw attention to their ongoing contract negotiations.
Keys hang in the door knob of the new house where one-year-old Eleni del Toro Rivera will live in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The home was completed by missionaries from Colorado Springs churches after three days of work.
A firefighter mans his water canon to combat a blaze that engulfed an abandoned warehouse in Everett, Wash. The fire continued to burn through the night and the following day.
Maddie Rogers, 12, prepares put on a show in order to solicit business for the snacks and cider stand she was running with her friends during the Chilly Hilly bicycle ride around Bainbridge Island.
Ryan Carlyle, of Monroe, Wash. shows off his beer belly as Debra Churchill, left, Melissa Olson and Mandy Pemberton of Kirkland cheer during a contest to find the most exceptional belly in the crowd gathered for the Kirkland Classic Car Show.
Michelle Looney, 3, an avid fisherman from Littleton, Colo., cranes her neck back to view the sockeye salmon in the viewing window at the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks fish ladder in Seattle.
A dump truck drops off a load of mined rock at a crushing station at the Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mining operation in Victor, Colo. The rock is crushed into smaller pieces before it is leached of its precious metals.
A search and rescue worker makes contact with Buster, a boxer who became stranded on a rock after falling in the Stillaguamish River near Granite Falls, Wash. Volunteers with the Snohomish County Search and Rescue team set up a line across the river that they used to pull the dog to safety. The dog had been stranded since the prior evening.
Garrett Balsick, 8, climbs one of his grandfather's windmills in Peyton, Colo. He says he's been collecting toy windmills.
University of Washington School of Nursing students learn about how to check for leaks in chest tubes hooked up to SimMan, a computerized, simulated patient used in the school's hands-on training lab.
The Kingdome begins to crumble under its own weight after explosives were detonated to demolish the structure Jan. 10, 2000 in Seattle.
During a brief break in afternoon traffic, a lone pedestrian crosses Pacific Avenue while threatening clouds move towards downtown Everett, Wash.
The Colorado Springs Veterans Memorial stands reflected in the black marble of the Korean War Memorial during the 61st anniversary of the air raid on Pearl Harbor.
Firefighters prepare to rescue Angelo Martinez, 20, from a 60 foot tall rock in Red Rocks Canyon, where he became stuck while climbing. The fire department got the call after a nearby resident heard Martinez's yells. He had been trapped on the rock, about 30 feet above ground, since 10:00 am and was rescued at 2:13 pm. Manitou Fire Chief Keith Buckmiller says that Martinez was lucky that the wind carried his voice in the right direction, toward homes and further out into the canyon, or else he might have been stuck there overnight. Buckmiller says that he broke the two main rules of climing: never climb without the proper equipment, and never climb without a partner. Martinez was uninjured.
Hot, sunny weather had Anna Niebuhr, 13, other kids smiling at the Valley Swim Club pool in Colorado Springs. Niebuhr says she visits the pool about four times a week during the summer, and likes going because of all the people she gets to see. On hot days, lifeguards there say there are between 60 and 70 people in the water at a time. The private club received improvements over the winter, with the dimensions of the pool adjusted, a new kid's pool added and a sand volleyball court built.
Justin Baker, 6, watches the grand finale of a light show at Memorial Park as the Colorado Springs Symphony performs. The light show was a substitute for the usual fireworks that are launched to commemorate the Fourth of July.