Those who’ve been following along for a while now already know this, but sometimes I’ll sit down to write a Monday Mash-Up post and comPLETELY blank on what happened over the last week of my life. So I do the natural thing and pull out my phone, open the Instagram app, and check what photos I’ve posted over the last seven days to remind me. Sad, I know, but thank you LORD for a phone that also serves to document my life!

Last Thursday, Matt & I celebrated four years of marriage! He took the day off and on a whim, we decided to head into DC to spend some time at the National Art Gallery. I’ve never really been into modern art (actually, if we’re being honest, I can’t STAND modern art), but I’ve recently found myself wanting to study painted portraits from the 1600-1800’s. So we jumped in the car and headed to the Smithsonian where we spent several hours wandering from room to room to room. We actually SAW a DaVinci! I didn’t know if there were any in the US, but sure enough, the National Gallery has the only DaVinci on this side of the Atlantic, and we saw it.

It was SO interesting to walk through the gallery and see which type of paintings I was naturally drawn to- it turns out, I’m a Raphael fan. AND we got to see an entire room devoted to Degas!! The original Little Dancer sculpture was there as well as several of his ballerina pieces, and I could have stayed in that room all day. It made me all the more thankful for my own ballerina painting that’s currently hanging above my desk :).

Also last week, we finally got to witness Joe & Wendy revealing to their friends and family that they’re MARRIED! Remember that elopement in New York City I mentioned on IG? Yep, it was these two!! I cannot WAIT to share their day with you on Thursday- you guys are going to die when you see this one.

As always, lessons learned/events that transpired over the past week:

• CatchPhrase is infinitely more interesting when you’re playing with friends from Bible study and you’ve all had a glass of wine with dinner. That’s all I’ll say on that matter.
• When you wake up on a Tuesday morning to unexpectedly find the streets covered in snow, AND your husband happens to be home, you do the only reasonable thing and drag him outside for a few quick self-portraits.
• Sirius & Lily like to play this game at 7am called “who can jostle Abby the most while she’s still trying to sleep?” It’s super fun.
• Know what else is fun? When you wake up at 3am to the sound of your smaller dog gagging on goodness knows what. #puppyparentingproblems
• #Youcan’tusehashtagsinblogposts, Abby!

Here’s a preview of Joe & Wendy’s intimate Manhattan elopement- make sure to check the blog Thursday for the whole thing!

And here’s one of those snowy portraits that my picture-taking-hating husband lovingly agreed to take with me!

Happy Monday, sweet friends!