See ya 2019...

As the sun sets in the picture, so goes 2019...

The sun will rise tomorrow, with it 2020...

It'll be a big year...we've got big things planned...big things happening...time to get started with the list...

Door Decorations...

Three years ago, a group of students made this door decoration for me (the bearded Olaf):

I had planned on keeping that long term (I currently have 3 that I rotate through my several doors to my room), but my then principal tore it down during the spring...

 So now I have a student aid, who I looped with in 7th and 8th grade, she made me this door decoration:

I like it...it'll be part of my rotation for a long time...

She also tends to wander in at some point during the day and put up the science joke of the day, here is a recent one...

For about a month, it was Earth Science related, now she's moved onto Chemistry related jokes (the course she's taking)...many of my 7th and 8th grade students look forward to the joke each day...we'll see what she's got planned for after break...

MN Zoo...

With the forecast looking so good, and it being Winter Break, we took off for the zoo early this morning to get there about the time it opened...

Temperatures were between 35-40 degrees, so most of our time was spent outside (we took a brief trip through the tropics trail and watched a bird show)...basically, it was a Tiger day...

They were out and busy...

This one was just busy chewing on a bone...

The ad says "when they ask for a kitty, give them the biggest one."  Meaning, give them the gift of a zoo membership...we already have one, but we'll take a picture anyway...

The one picture we took on the tropics trail was of the komodo dragon, it was off the branch it typically sits on...

Up close and personal with a puma...glad the glass is there...

Lukie really likes the lynx...Lex likes the six-month old lynx kitten, who is out of the picture to the left...

Back to the tigers...

My favorite animals are the bison...

The first time around, the grizzlies were sleeping...the second time around the largest was out climbing the rocks...

The sign said the sea otters were off exhibit for the day, but when we went around the second time they were swimming...

Another good day at the zoo...

First Day of Winter Break...

Today was the first day of the winter break (last night for the first evening of break we saw Star Wars:  Rise of Skywalker, but that's a different story)...it was about 40 degrees and we spent a chunk of time outside...the result was a snowman (hope it makes it through this warm spell)...

Tonight, we're settling down to watch a movie in front of the tree...

Though, Lukie and Lex aren't exactly thrilled how I wrapped (and labeled) presents this year...

There's been quite a bit of 'no fairs' and 'don't like' said the last week or so...but they really haven't touch the presents much...not much fun if you don't know it's yours...

Gooseberry Falls...

After leaving Jay Cooke State Park, we had some time to kill before we went to Bentleyville last month, so we went up to Gooseberry...

Love seeing how Gooseberry changes depending on the time of the year we're there...

There was quite a bit of ice built up already...but it was a nice day, probably 35 degrees...

We spent a couple of hours around the falls area...most of the time, Lukie was trying to break the ice over the river (he couldn't, it was too thick)...

Below is the Middle Falls, just seen from above...

Like I said, it was a nice day.  Lukie and Lex alternated wearing and carrying their jackets...

The Gooseberry River flowing out towards Lake Superior...the view is very different in the spring or fall...

After returning to Duluth, we had time for an early dinner at Little Angie's and a walk out to the lighthouse (the very next weekend, waves from the lake were going over that walkway and flooding streets in Canal Park...wished we would've seen that)...

Bentleyville at dusk and a quiet drive back...it was a fun weekend...

Lukie Band Concert...

Tonight was Lukie's first band concert.  He's been playing the trumpet for about eight weeks.  It was fun to watch (and being only four songs, pretty short too)...I was surprised the band had almost 40 students, out of a class of around 75, that seems like a lot...

Lukie is in the back row, third from the right...

The four songs they played were:

1.  Hot Cross Buns

2.  Rolling Along

3.  Light Row

4.  Mozart Melody (which turns out to be twinkle, twinkle little star)

Funny moment when they went to start the second song...about half the kids were playing hot cross buns again...the director stopped them and turned to the audience and said "they really like hot cross buns" before starting again on the second song...

Lukie is above the director's head in the picture above...it was a fun concert considering that all the students have only been playing their instruments for eight weeks...you expect mistakes and roll with it...

The 5th grade band was required to watch the 6th grade band immediately after they were done (it'll be a discussion point in band tomorrow) and it was good to see how much changes after students have been in band for over a year.  There are mistakes, songs are still pretty simple, it's still a learning process...

Three fall concerts are done...

Jay Cooke State Park...

About a month ago, we spent the weekend at Jay Cooke State Park in one of their camper cabins, before heading to Duluth on Sunday night for Bentleyville...we've been doing it for awhile now...it's one of our top 5 state parks...

Leaving town after school gives us a long drive to the park.  What do we do as soon as we get there?  Start a fire...

We stayed at the Gabbro cabin this time, new to us, but just as good...

After breakfast Saturday morning, not long after the sun came up, it was time for a hike...

The St. Louis River...

Some areas of the park had a half inch or inch of snow...just enough to leave footprints (or tracks)...

Other areas were almost bare ground...

We did the hiking club trail again...we've done it already, but it was the best time...

Then we took a side trail...you can see it...

Bringing us to the swinging bridge...

After crossing the bridge, we stopped at the park office because Lukie and Lex wanted to check out a 'animal track' kit...with the little bit of snow it was pretty easy to see all the critter's tracks...

In the kit, there are some indoor activities for kids to do...

But eventually, it was time to get back outside (and look for tracks)...

And geocache...

This geocache started at the park office and took us almost 2 miles round trip, ending near the park office...

But ending near the river and bridge isn't too bad after all...

Lex found a way to relax after the geocache hike...

But as the sun was setting, we returned to the cabin (we'd been pretty busy all day)...

Lukie rested while Lex built a mini snowman...

In the end, both spent most of the time watching a fire from inside the cabin instead of being outside (they were pretty tired)...

Another great time in the northwoods...