Trivia Weekend

This past weekend was the annual trivia contest in St. Cloud.  This contest is something Mike has been participating in since high school.  That same group of friends (plus a few additional people they've picked up along the way) get together the second weekend in February for 50 straight hours of trivia fun.

This year proved to be a little different for us because of Derek.  Mike did great at planning ahead and got most of his work done before Derek was born (Mike runs a server for the team to streamline opening & closing of questions, submitting answers, and communicating with one another).  He still participated almost 40+ hours worth.  Meanwhile, Derek got to hang out with Grandma & Grandpa Nistler.  Both were very helpful in taking over Mike's normal duties and taking care of Derek so I got a little "me" time.  We got some excellent photos courtesy of Uncle Matt:

Grandma Nistler playing with Derek

One of his favorite ways to be held - up on the shoulder so he can see everything.  And it tastes good too!

Lots of kisses for Derek

Nancy planned a "meet & greet" party so the Nistler extended family could meet Derek for the first time.  Mike came home from trivia to hang out with the family and we celebrated his birthday a little early too:

The big 3-0!

Mike's Grandpa came for a little while and gave us a beautiful hand crafted quilt rack.  We also took that opportunity to capture the first photo of four generations of Nistler men:

After all of the fun settled down, we went for a walk and a little more play time:

Ready for a walk on one of the rare nice winter days

Playing with Grandpa Nistler

And Derek wouldn't be a Nistler if he wasn't a fan of computers.  He started his trivia playing at an early age - probably one of the youngest trivia players ever.  Saturday we played from the Nistler house but Sunday went to the trivia headquarters:

Exhausted after a long day of trivia playing.

Dad helping Derek play trivia on a laptop just his size.

All and all it was a great weekend for everyone.  We successfully had our first weekend away from home with Derek and Mike's team came in 5th place - an all time best finish!