OCTOBER 2010... conference bread, bottle crisis, and Oktoberfest San Antonio!

Oh, October.  Or, as the Germans say it, "Oktober".  The pronunciation is crazy different.  I know. Luckily, I'm fluent in German so I can help you.

The month started out with General Conference for our church.  We love being able to tune in via the world wide web to listen to our prophet and church leaders speak.  It's always a great time.  If you're curious, my favorite talk was from Elder Holland.  It was such a positive and uplifting talk. A real pat-on-the-back.  Here it is, if you'd like to read it.  

If you remember correctly, Aaron is in love with Pillsbury Orange Rolls.  It is a Conference Tradition he takes very seriously.  I've tried to do "off-brands" in the past, but it's never good enough.  Well, this year I convinced him that I wanted to try HOMEMADE orange rolls.  Why not?  Plus, the night before we had just come home from our awful Dallas weekend.  Remember? 

So, since it was Sunday (we don't shop on Sundays) I thought this was the perfect excuse to try out a new recipe. Well, let's just say, it didn't work out too well.  I did a bread recipe so I could do a few loaves and then with the remainder, create the rolls.  Well, I made a true loaf of bread in the loaf pan... but forgot that I had enough dough left over for 3 more loaves.  I had rolled out the wad of dough and was trying to manipulate it----let's just stop.  It stunk.  Didn't work.  It was huge.  I was over it.  And then thought, why not try to cook the huge mess?


Obviously, it didn't work.  Try cooking 3 loaves on a cookie sheet, rolled up, with sweet junk in the middle.  Gross.  ALL AROUND.  It looks like I was roasting a live pig or something equally disgusting.

oh well.  I did get ONE pretty loaf.  And, really, take a look at that beaut.  It really is pretty.  I know.

 

Well, let's just say, I'm not opening up a bakery ANY time soon.

*Remember how ANTI-bottles/liquid Calvin was during this special time of life?  Yes, I do too.  Awful.  Anyway, in my desperate attempts to get Cal to drink, I asked Aaron to take one of the nipples for his bottle and make it a tad bigger.

Ummm... it was a little bit bigger than I'd anticipated.  Wow.  Thanks, Aaron.  Let's zoom in for a close up.

 

Did it work?  sadly, no.  But, here is the documentation that we did try to help our son in his time of need.

**Oktoberfest, San Antonio style.
Since I have a TON of German heritage (hello, maiden name was originally Schneider), I felt like I needed to be with my peeps.  Okay, not really, we just wanted to have a night out on the town.
We had been thinking it would be fun to make the drive up to New Braunfels for their big Oktoberfest celebration.  We'd heard fun reviews from friends, but apparently, we'd missed it.  So, we thought we should give San Antonio's celebration a try.  We had no idea what to expect. 
In the end, it was pretty fun.  We discovered that Germans love their beer, leiderhosen, Peter Pan-esque hats, beer steins, and flags.  And, I discovered that I'm not a big fan of German cuisine.  Bratwurst?  no thanks.  A Reuben sandwich? Gross.  Sauerkraut?  Gag me. 
Needless to say, I was pretty hungry by the end of the night.  Aaron, on the other hand, single-handedly polished it all off.  Amazing.  For one so slim, you'd never know he could accomplish feats like that. 
Here are the pictures that show how totally adventurous we are.  Or not.

A cool house that we parked in front of.  this had NOTHING to do with Oktoberfest.  But, I thought I should document it, regardless.

The crew.  Tillie rocking the shades.

the always happy camper.  Love those new kicks.

Walking through someone's secret garden.  It was borderline magical/creepy.

Tillie helping Calvin to be patriotic.

The view when you walk in. Surprisingly, there were a lot of people.

Tillie looks like she's having the time of her life, while Aaron claps politely.

Scoping out the food options...  She looks thrilled at the choices.  or not.

oh yes.

German choir.  This part was the highlight.  They were great.  So many audience members knew the songs too.  It made for a fun atmosphere.  And, Tillie got up and started dancing with the other little kids.  Talk about darling.

Oh, yes.  Remember how much everyone loves their beer and beer steins?  Opa!  oh wait... wrong language.

 Anyway, it was a fun night.  It made me want to dress up and hop on stage with them all.  I think in another life, I should have been a Von Trapp Family Singer.  Even though they were from Austria... it made me think about the story. 

Good times in San Antonio.  Happy October.