A Birthday To Remember...

It figures. ..

You see, if you’ve followed our lives for any amount of time, I think you would agree that we don’t do things in the “normal” fashion.

Nope. We seem to march to the beat of our own little drum.

It really isn’t intentional. Just seems to be the way our life goes.

SO, this next story should come as no surprise.

The big plan this past weekend was to take Eden (our live-in high-schooler) to Charleston to celebrate her 18th birthday.

I mean really; how much better can an 18th birthday get than to spend it clopping down cobblestone streets on the back of a horse drawn carriage or shopping through the old fashioned marketplace.

We had dreamed of this weekend for the past month (our first mistake).

The first part of the day seemed wonderful. The kids were surprisingly compliant. Our feisty little Brekyn just wanted to hold our hand all day and stayed right by our side. Elle handled the lack of normal naps well and life seemed dandy! We saw Charleston by carriage ride and did a little “Christmas” shopping. We sat by the water and ate a picnic lunch… All was well!

As part of the big day, we had found a great Japanese Hibachi Restaurant to go to for dinner. Eden walked in and got a huge smile on her face when she realized that hibachi meant they actually cooked the meal right in front of you. She had never been to anything like this and I was thrilled that we could share it with her.

We sat down at our big table … and then Elle got tired.

We spent the first 20 minutes trying to calm Elle down as she screamed her head off. The stares began from those around us and I finally offered to take Elle for a walk outside.

Up and down the street..back and forth…Elle finally stopped crying and I headed back into the restaurant.

The minute I sat down, little Elle decided that was not her favorite plan and she began screaming again.

At this point Donn decided that Elle needed some teething medicine so I agreed to go to the car to get it. Only thing is…the car was about 8 blocks away. You see, in Charleston, you park your car and walk everywhere.

Sooooo, I trapsed back to the car in the fastest pace I could manage; the entire time praying that I would have a good attitude and that I wouldn ‘t miss seeing the Hibachi chef.

Completely out of breath, I rushed back into the restaurant to see that Elle had fallen asleep finally. Donn then looked at me with his dimpled little smile and said, “I guess we don’t need the medicine.”

To which I said something to the degree of, “Oh noooo…this little girl is taking this medicine whether she wants it or not!”

I obviously then realized how dumb it would be to wake up a sleeping baby just to give her the medicine that I had labored over retrieving, so I sat down and was surprised to realize that the great Hibachi Chef had still not come to our table!

Okay, so obviously this restaurant has horribly slow service, but in my current circumstance I guess it was a blessing.

I looked to my left and saw my sweet Brekyn sitting on Eden’s lap and I began to comment on how happy I was that we were going to get to enjoy the meal now.

I then heard a scream from my left as Brekyn’s eyes got huge and he began spewing chunks of who knows what from his mouth (sorry , there’s just no pretty way to say that). Great thing is….remember, I said that Brekyn was sitting on Eden’s lap!

And so, long story short, we rushed out of the Hibachi restaurant (never receiving our meal) with the birthday girl covered in nasty puke and still having to pay a bill of $30 for sweet teas and some broth!

After showering off we then spent the remainder of the night sitting in the hotel room watching the Discovery channel.

Oh, be still my soul. Don’t you just want to spend your birthday with us?

Oh, come on…you know you do!

Happy 18th birthday Eden! Welcome to the family!

Addendum: It just gets better! I just got a phone call from Eden's school where she is throwing up. There's nothing better than a birthday at our house!