SANFORD, N.C. » Sanford native Shanell Highfill said she has already set her 9-month-old daughter's pink outfit aside to be saved.

After all, how often will little Peyton get to have her picture taken with a future president?

President-elect Barack Obama spotted Highfill, who is living in Hawaii with her Marine husband, and her daughter as he worked out Wednesday at a gym at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe.

The Highfills joined about 100 other people outside the gym looking to meet Obama. As he left, Obama shook hands and thanked Peyton's dad, Cpl. Travis Highfill, for his service.

Then he saw the little baby in the pink outfit with “;hug me”; written on it.

“;He said, 'Let me hold that fella,'”; Shanell Highfill told the Sanford Herald.

Obama held the child for less than a minute. But photographers, including one from the Associated Press, captured the moment and the picture ended up all over the country.

Family and friends from Sanford quickly began calling and e-mailing Highfill.

“;I was floored,”; said Shanell Highfill's mother, Tammy Shenkel. “;I told her it was like winning the lotto.”;

The pink outfit has been set aside for a shadowbox, and Highfill said she is also saving all other mementos she can find.

“;It gives me chills,”; Highfill said. “;To meet the first African-American president ... I think that's a big thing for her.”;

Highfill said the meeting with Obama was by far the highlight of her daughter's day. When the picture was taken, she still had on a bandage from some immunizations.