Hello, 2017! The beginning of a new year is one of my favorite times, because everything feels so fresh and grace-filled. It's the time to reflect on the past and evaluate goals for the upcoming year. Sometimes this evaluation leads to a need for change and that's perfectly okay. At some point in your life, you've probably needed a fresh start, too; a chance to forget the guilt you've held so close to your heart. We all need that chance--we all need like one thousand of those chances, actually!--so don't give yourself a hard time for needing another shot. Everyone has had their fair share of failures, that's why I love the New Years holiday. It's a yearly reminder of the grace I find in Jesus on a daily basis.

But on a less serious note, a lot of you have been following my traveling adventures the past week. Did you lose track of where I was some days? I know I did. Every day I would wake up and ask myself, "what city did I fall asleep in last night?" The answer changed a lot of times!! I'll be sharing more pics in the next few weeks, but today I thought I'd post a few photos from our day in Washington D.C.!

We toured the Capitol early in the day and explored our favorite Smithsonian museums (American History and the Gallery of Art. Air and Space was wayyyy too busy :( ). It was so hard to fit everything we wanted to do into one day, but we definitely fit everything important in!

Garrison was continually amazed with the architecture. He took so many great building photos like the ones above and the ones below of the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building.

Oh, and you know us, we had to take a coffee break later in the afternoon! Garrison found this cool coffee shop, and he and I walked 1.5 miles out of the way to check it out. We have skewed priorities, hehe. Compass Coffee was totally worth it, though! The second we walked in, we knew we'd have to come back again. 

Garrison and I both ordered cold brews. His was a Maple Cold Brew and mine was a Gingerbread Spice Cold Brew (not as fluffy as it sounds, I swear). We highly recommend them! 

Just had to let you know that I actually took the building picture above. We all know Garrison is the photographer, but I'm still trying to keep up with him! 

The lobby of the National Gallery of Art was still decked out in Christmas decorations. They had real Christmas trees in between the pillars and poinsettias all around the fountain.

The art itself was amazing. We saw a few Monet's, van Gogh's, and Pissarro's (my favorite!). I could've spent the whole day there, haha.

And a last little bit of festivity that we saw on our way to the Metro!

This was my second time visiting Washington D.C. and I absolutely love everything about it. It's just close enough to NYC and has so many interesting things to do. It's the perfect blend of historical and modern aesthetics, basically my favorite blend ever. 

I hope your hopes are high for 2017, because my hopes are very high for you. I wouldn't be writing this post right now without your support, love, and dedication to EM. I like you--and love you--lots. 

xx,

Em.