Opal Leigh Larkin
Idyllwild residents James Walter Larkin II and Rachel Corinne Welch are the proud new parents of Opal Leigh Larkin, born at 8:39 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011, at Rancho Springs Medical Center in Murrieta.

Opal weighed 6 pounds, 10 ounces at birth and was 19 inches long.

Her father, James, is employed at the Idyllwild Town Crier and Idyllwild Arts Academy and her mother, Rachel, works at Café Aroma and is a teacher with the Hemet Unified School District.

Opal is lovingly welcomed by her extended family — maternal grandparents Alison and Steve Wieman of Temecula and Alan and Garnette Welch of Julian; paternal grandparents Jim and Letitia Larkin of Stockton; aunts and uncles Zakk Welch and Bree Felix of San Marcos, Amy and Chris Lopes of Hilmar, Andrea and David Payne of Livermore, and Steven Wieman and Travis Wieman of Temecula; and cousins Stephen Lopes, Joshua Lopes and Reagan Payne.

Of his new baby daughter, James simply said, “She is beautiful.”