I got lucky enough to capture this impromptu moment tonight between my wife and her baby boy. The camera angle was not intentional, just incidental. But as I recorded, I realized that I didn't even need to see their faces to experience the joy that they were sharing. I'm blessed to see this relationship in action every day, and this candid moment just gave me a deeper appreciation for the gift of being a husband and father. For those of you who also love Becky and Jack:

Our joy...

It's no surprise to anyone who knows me...but I am a competitive person. I'm sure it's obnoxious from time to time, but I always want to do well at whatever I'm doing. Ever since my last Nike+ competition ended, my running has tapered down to once a week or so. It surprised me how quickly my motivation waned in the absence of external pressure...hmmm...I guess maybe I don't love running as much as I love competing. So with this knowledge, I joined another challenge with my friends at work. We've got a 44 day timeline (yesterday through New Years Day) and a goal to pack in as many miles as possible.

Since the competition spans Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years, I named it the New-chris-murkey-trot. And, of course, had to design a little mascot!

It's going to be interesting, since the weather is turning here in Oregon, and I'm not a fan of running on a treadmill. But I guess with the proper motivation, I'll be able to keep it up!

As usual, we had a great visit in Wenatchee last weekend. I took a few days off, so we really got to stretch out our time. I guess I was having too much fun and didn't get the camera out much, but I did get a few.

Brad and I went on a quick hike, right out the front door. 30 minutes later, and this is the view. How cool is that.



On the way up the hill.

Jack had a great time playing with the boys. It was sure fun to see him up on his feet interacting with the big kids. He seems a lot older than 11 months to us. Special shout out to Elliott, Wesley and Spencer for playing so well with Jack. They did a great job of looking out for him!



Of course, the weekend was FULL of Wii time. We had some special bowling moments, but luckily, this time, Brad didn't hurt his arm.

I'm sure the Bjournal will have some updates soon as well!

Here's our little monkey (thanks for sharing your costume Ethan)! We had a great time last night having pizza at mom and dad's house and then heading to BCC's Harvest Party. We've gone before with all the kids, but it was sure fun to have our own guy to take this year. We even managed to get them all on the couch for a little picture. We missed the pictures with Sydney the peapod and Abigail the bunny- they were both adorable- so head to Jen or Sarah's blog soon for some pics.