Oh my heavens.  Riding horses hurts.  A lot.  My butt.  My back.  My neck.  My tummy. My legs.  I haven’t been on a horse since last June–thanks to my prego belly–and riding last Saturday felt horrid.  Well, actually the riding part of things wasn’t so bad, it was waking up the next morning with a sore body, not sore muscles my entire body, that was totally wretched.  I forgot just how many muscles it takes to ride a horse.  Clearly not using those muscles for about a year bit me in the butt.

Despite the pain I had to endure afterwards, I had a really good time riding!  Mr. Rancher and I spent the afternoon with my brother Kevin and his girlfriend Amy, without the company of a certain little baby.  Miss Henley spent a few hours with Aunt Lexcie, and even though I called Lexcie every thirty minutes to check on the baby it was really nice to have a few hours to just be me.  No diaper bag to tote around.  No pacifier to lose.  No puke running down my shirt.

Being on the other end of a babysitting deal was a bit surreal for me.  Before Lexcie arrived, I was rushing around my house trying to make sure everything was ready for her.  I’ve been babysitting since I was eight years old and have had many great experiences taking care of little children.  I’ve also had many, many, many rotten experiences.  Most of those involve situations where I couldn’t find something I really needed, the kids not being well-fed or being over-tired, or the parents being out of touch for hours on end.  I tried really hard to have everything that Lexcie could possibly need laid out for her, my house clean, snacks for her to munch on, Henley fed and napping, and my cell phone on at all times.  I also gave her detailed, specific, probably ridiculously overly-informative instructions.  I couldn’t help it.  I’ve been the babysitter too many times!  I’m happy to report, Henley had a fantastic time with Lexcie, and I think Lexcie had fun with little miss.

Mr. Rancher, Kevin, Amy and I all had fun riding together.  We checked cows, saw a few new babies, took some fun pictures, and I lost my phone.  My lot in life is to be the girl who always loses her phone while riding horse, feeding, or changing water.  Mr. Rancher really doesn’t get surprised when I tell him I’ve lost my phone.  He’s actually started asking me to check for it at random intervals during our little outing together.  I’m so lucky he looks out for me and the well-being of my electronic devices.  He really might ask me to check for it just so he doesn’t have to go search through the fields for it later.  Me losing my phone, yet again, was only trumped by my brother falling off his horse.  Kevin’s not much of a horse guy and this little accident may have sealed that deal for him.

So other than the phone losing and falling (and sore bodies the next day) it was a great afternoon.

Our cute horsies, Salt and Si.

Kevin and Amy!  Such troopers.