Johnson City with Erica

I love taking advantage of the extended Texas trip that Erica takes around Christmas and New Years every year with her family. This year, we met in the middle in Johnson City when we find time to sneak away to spend good quality time just the two of us. We started the day hiking over 7 miles at Pedernales Falls State Park.



After a lovely pub meal, we walked around their small strip of lights and enjoyed each other's company.

Washington, D.C.

Over Winter Break, we took the family on a vacation to Washington, D.C. to visit many special monuments, museums, and memorials in addition to seeing Gigi who can no longer visit us. Team Cohen covered a lot of ground, both literally and figuratively. We were up and moving at 4:00 in the morning, but we made it alive, alert, awake, enthusiastic, and with plenty of the day left to live!



We enjoyed a quality visit with Gigi on our first afternoon of the trip. Nana told us that she hadn't been exerting much energy in the days prior, but when we were there, she was highly engaging, interactive, conversational, and really lovely to see with the kids.




Waking up the next day, we layered up, and these Texans got ready to brave the frigid temperatures to explore downtown Washington, D.C.!

World War II Memorial:


Reflecting Pool and Washington Monument:

Lincoln Memorial:

Korean War Memorial:

Vietnam War Memorial:

Mastering the art of creative poses with the Washington Monument:


Finishing off our day downtown:



Ending the night with kosher schwarma!

The next morning, we took a drive over to Virginia to visit Mount Vernon, the former plantation home of George Washington.

Touching history: We learned that the handrails were original to the house, hundreds of years old.

After Mt. Vernon, we had a family-filled afternoon and evening, first squeezing in another great visit with Gigi.



Then, we went to Uncle Dennis and Aunt Sharon's condo, and the kids went swimming with cousin Mark.




It was evening; it was morning. Next day.

Because it was supposed to be the coldest day of our week, we planned for it to be our most indoor day visiting museums. We started at the Smithsonian National Museum of America.




American Museum of Natural History:

Ethan found his otters.

Between museums 2 and 3, we stopped on the Mall to pose by the Capitol:


Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum:

Daddy knew a thing or two about air travel to help educate the rest of us.

What did flying on early aviation feel like?

After a long day and three museums, some of us were a little tired that evening.

On New Year's Eve Day, we woke up to one last day to play in downtown Washington, D.C. We returned to explore some monuments and memorials that we hadn't gotten to on our first day. First up, the Jefferson Memorial:


FDR Memorial:


MLK Memorial:

Learning the lessons of peace for all humans and joining inflatable Amphifa, adding the word "Shalom" to their international and multilingual representations and displays of peace.

Visiting the White House and hoping that one day, it returns to being a symbol of hope, and power that is worthy of respect.

Continuing with our busy busy day, we rushed over to Planet Word, squeezing in an hour and a half before they closed.



Being our last night in town, we were grateful to visit with Gigi one more time.





After the Gigi visit, we enjoyed a New Years Eve pizza dinner with Nana and Aunt Susan.

New Year's Eve ice cream and fun:


As we woke up very very early on New Year's Day to catch our flight home, the kiddos were overjoyed to see snow coming down to escort us out of vacation.