It looks like one punk is trying to slap the other punk.  Leave it up to a bunch of city slickers on vacation to think horseplay is allowed on horseback.

You know what?  I have learned I would not make a good equestrian.  The thing I don’t like about horses is that they have brains.  The brain in my horse?  It told the big fellow to walk slowly behind all the other horses because apparently he thought I wanted a hour’s worth of photos of my family’s backs.  I much prefer a gas-powered vehicle with a fast accelerator and good brakes.  Tomorrow we’ll be four-wheeling and I plan to leave the whole family in my dust.

Mr. Mom and Kate also beat me today scaling this tower.

It’s a little known fact that the Magpie is deathly afraid of heights.  I made it up one flight of stairs and got dizzy and had to sit down and catch my breath before crawling down in shame.  Same for Parker.

My irrational fear of heights can be traced to a nightmarish incident on a ferris wheel when I was three.  Parker’s fear?  I think it stems from another nightmarish ferris wheel incident when I was six months pregnant with him.   I know.  I never should have been on a ferris wheel in that advanced state of gestation, but I was alone with Kate at a carnival and she was two years old and screaming to get on.  I sucked it up and got on the ferris wheel thinking I’m not really that afraid of heights, only to realize yes I am!  It’s a bad deal when a very pregnant woman with a screaming toddler discovers a minute too late that she’s terrified out of her mind to be on a ferris wheel.  I’m certain that all Parker’s fears can be traced back to that moment in the womb.  It’s either that, or the moment that I decided --mid-air -- that doing a back flip off the diving board while five months pregnant with the poor boy was probably not too smart.

Today, I knew the view from the top of the tower would be breathtaking, but it was not to be.  Parker and I waited at the bottom while Mr. Mom and Kate took photos for me.

Check out the Oklahoma prairie.

You know what I’m doing out here?  I’m breathing.  Slow and deep.  You should try it sometime.  Breathing is highly underrated.  Especially breathing deep and slow on the Oklahoma prairie.

I plan to breathe a lot over the next two days.