Liv took her first ever paddle boat ride last weekend at Mahoney State Park. Buckled into her teeny life vest in no less than four places, she was passed into my arms while I stood on the boat, which bobbed and bounced as boats tend to do. The bobbing and bouncing increased exponentially when my father-in-law came on in — and continued as the rest of the family clambered on board. By the third paddle into our 30 minute boat ride, Livia was frantically signing “ALL DONE!” (Ah, we’ve created a landlubber. Go figure, we live in the middle of the plains.) She cautiously eyed the little lake until her funny daddy made her crack a smile, and then happily spent the rest of the time splashing in lake water while my mother-in-law and I mused about why our boat was taking on so much water. Just ask Jeremy about how easy it was to paddle five chunkies around the lake. (Make that three chunkies. Liv and Grandma Karen have no need to embrace the Tredway Summer Challenge.)

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Tredway, we enjoyed the rest of the evening in their lodge room. Fabulous steak dinners were consumed at Around the Bend Steakhouse (home to the infamous Testicle Festival) and Livia passed out into a paddle-boat/no-nap/lots-of-the-time-in-the sun-induced slumber by 9pm that night. Well-rested by sunrise the next day, she forgot the first rule of vacation (You Must Sleep In!) and “encouraged” mom and dad to rise and shine at the crack of dawn. Before heading home that morning we drove through a Nebraska Safari, on the opposite side of I-80 from Mahoney State Park. It turned out to be a really interesting little expedition where we rolled up our back windows so the elk wouldn’t consider our toddler a nice appetizer. Bison, white-tailed deer, and cranes, oh my!

**This blog post is all for Jill, by the way. If anyone else enjoys reading it, that’s cool. But the pics? Primarily for Jill’s enjoyment.