See 50 photos that showcase smiles, challenges and lives in mid-Michigan through 2025

Opa Dance Group members perform during Saginaws Greek Festival on Friday, June 13, 2025.

As the New Year creeps around the corner, there were thousands of moments captured throughout the Tri-Cities in 2025.

Smoke blows in the strong winds because of an active fire at Consumers Energy Dan E. Karn coal plant site in Essexville, Mich. on Monday, Feb. 17, 2025.

Festivals, proms and parades showcased lots of smiles, while other events such as the Consumers Energy Dan E. Karn Power Plant fire and Saginaw mothers seek justice for their sons murders highlighted more challenging times.

A drone image of the new football field at Saginaw United High School, 1903 N. Niagara Street in Saginaw, Mich., on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025.

MLive photojournalist Kaytie Boomer covered all those moments, including traveling to Gaylord after the major ice storm left their community blanketed in ice.

Children smile while spinning on the Sizzler ride during the Freeland Walleye Festival in Freeland, Mich. on Friday, April 25, 2025.

While there were thousands of images published in 2025, these are some of the favorites.

Jean Willis, an aid at Jessie Loomis Elementary School, pulls a cart of donated food to her vehicle to bring to the children at the school from Hunger Solution Center, 940 E. Genesee Avenue in Saginaw, Mich., on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025.

From left, Tiffany Blair-Burton poses for a photograph with photographs of her son, Taylor Burton, printed all over her clothing and Vicky Yrlas poses for a photograph holding up a framed image of her son, Torriano Yrlas-Thomas, on Friday, April 18, 2025. Burton, 20, was shot and killed on February 9, 2025 and Yrlas-Thomas, 21, was shot and killed on February 28, 2025, both in Saginaw, Mich. Blair-Burton and Yrlas met at a candlelight vigil hosted by Parents of Murdered Children (POMC) on April 10 at the Andersen Enrichment Center. Blair-Burton didnt know Yrlas, but something urged Blair-Burton to spark a conversation. Now, theyve bonded over their tragic and very similar situations, and they both want the same thing; justice for their sons. Stop this no snitching BS, Blair-Burton added. When someone is murdered and you see it and tell the police, you are not snitching. Youre doing a good deed. Right, Yrlas agreed. Snitching is when youre doing dirt with somebody and tell on them to save yourself. Thats snitching. But this? This is saving lives.

A collage of nine images taken throughout mid-Michigan in 2025.

Alma Arnold, 104, poses for a photograph in Auburn, Mich. on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025. Arnold will turn 105 on March 13 and advises others to keep moving throughout life to age like she has.

DTorrion Gibbs flexes while walking the runway during the second annual This Is Me Takes Saginaw fashion show at the Buena Vista Community Center in Saginaw, Mich. on Sunday, April 27, 2025.