Hiking up Penang Hill

Today I went on a two hour hike with some friends up Penang Hill. The first part of the journey was on the trail called "1,000 stairs". I think it has to be more than one thousand! ha! The rest of the journey we just hiked up the paved road so it was much easier. Believe me, the road is STEEP. I would not want to drive (nor ride in) a car on that road unless I knew the brakes were well maintained. We were almost to the top when it started to rain. I was the only one in the group who had brought an umbrella along and I was thankful I did because when you wear glasses it can be annoying to have them all splattered up with water drops while you are trying to see where you are walking. Plus my camera was kept drier as well. The umbrella did not keep me completely dry, but it did help a lot. Right when we got to the top it began to pour. We were so glad we were finished with the hike and not still somewhere in the middle. We spent a few minutes under an awning out of the rain at the top before we purchased our tickets to ride the funicular train back down to the station where the husband of one of my fellow hikers was waiting for us in a van. Overall I think we all had a good time and agreed that it was worth getting up early for on a Saturday morning.

On the stairs...

The group minus me. The only picture I got of myself included was very blurry because a man passing by took it and must not have focused first. That or maybe it's blurry because my batter was almost dead even though I had plugged it in the night before (don't think it was making the connection when it was charging). It doesn't take long in this climate to get nice and sweaty!
There were a TON of bees buzzing around this but you can't see them in the picture even when you click on it to make it bigger...so weird.
A house pretty close to the top.
Waiting under the awning watching the rain pour down...

Waiting to ride the train back down. So glad we didn't decide to walk back down. The cost for the train is less than a $1.00.
View from the front window of the train. We were the only ones on it! That hasn't happened to me before.
Watering was rushing down the drainage ditches due to the heavy rain.
Meeting a training going up the hill. The ones going up had way more people in them.

In other news, KL has started Saturday morning baseball over the course of the next two months. We missed his game last week because Greg and I went away overnight for our anniversary. Greg went to his game today, but they got rained out after 1.5 innings...however, KL's team was winning when the game got called. He has been pitching and doing a pretty good job. He struck out the first batter this morning. He also stole home for a run. I wanted Greg to take some pictures, but forgot to tell him last night so I left him a note this morning before I left. He didn't see the note before the game. I guess it's a good thing because when the rain came it came hard, and the camera would have gotten wet had he taken it with him. Hopefully I can get some next weekend to share here.

Other than that we are just enjoying our relaxing weekend. This week is our annual Spiritual Emphasis week. This year we are having a local pastor come and share. I am looking forward to hearing what he has to say and to what the week will bring. On Friday we will be concluding the week with our annual PTO Food and Fun fair. I am supposed to bake something to sell at that. Hmmm....will have to think about what to make.

We also have parent teacher's conferences for the girls on Tuesday, which means no school for them. Fortunately our meetings are scheduled at a time this year where we both can attend. That often is not the case. The school has changed the standardized testing for our students this year (we have always done the Iowa Basics in the past). Grades 1-9 took the tests this past week. They are all done on the computer so the results are in quickly. KJ takes hers this week. I imagine the results may be one point of discussion at the conferences. I am a little afraid to find out the results...LOL!

KL and KR have their birthdays next Monday. We don't have school on that day so I guess that should be a great day for the parties....I still don't know what I am going to do about a party for them. Every year I say I am going to get more organized and every year I am don't...Ugh. Just today KR says she wants a Nancy Drew party. The two "little" boys are willing to help me get a "mystery" arranged for the girls to solve. Sounds like A LOT of work to me...am I up for the challenge??? Check back next week to find out!