There's no cake, there's no ice cream. Happy Birthday.

I'm behind, I know. I haven't talked about Christmas or New Year's or anything in between. It doesn't really matter since I don't have many pictures to go along with any of it. Andrew and I continue to forget the camera, even though we do intend on bringing it with us when we leave for places. But, as Andrew pointed out, there isn't a whole lot to take pictures of at his parent's house since his siblings just aren't as cute as my nieces and nephews, more specifically, the twins. There is just something about taking a picture of a baby that taking a picture of a 16-year old just doesn't do for the camera.

Well, yesterday we all (we being me, Andrew, mom, Josie, Patrick, David, and Grandma and Grandpa L.) all went to the Mayan in Salt Lake to help celebrate Matthew's 8th birthday. I would like to place an emphasis on the "help celebrate" part. It was the most tiring meal of my life.

The Mayan, for those of you who don't know, is really a pretty cool restaurant. It kind of reminded me of Disney Land, at least the ambiance of it. Their railings were "bamboo" kind of like in the Indiana Jones ride and on the Tarzan tree house. I'm sure they have those same railings elsewhere in Disney Land.

The rest of the building (three stories, I might point out) is decorated in fake trees, colorful parrots (also fake), and big cliffs (made of the Styrofoam/cement combo rocks). The feature attraction of the restaurant are the cliff divers. They are hired to climb up the big "cliffs" (using the stairs so conveniently located right on the cliffs) up to the top and then they do these fantastic dives into the water. It's pretty cool.

The Mayan thus smells a lot like chlorine, but not the "pool smell" of chlorine. No, this has the strange smell of Pirates of the Caribbean or Splash Mountain. I think it might be because the chlorine smell is so infused with the smell of food.

Anyway, the meal was interesting. We chased around the boys and tried to keep the twins happy. I'm sure our waitress (oh, and management, too) was all too happy when we finally got all packed up to go.

A few things that happened:

1) Little Andrew got "lost" in the men's bathroom (he was hiding) so when Big Andrew found him, he ran out of the elevator and a chase throughout the entire building (involving all 3 floors) ensued.
2) When Matthew joined into the cop and robbers game, Big Andrew was then (by either of the two culprits) kicked, bit, smashed in the elevator door and...I will stop there.
3) Rosie got sick and threw up, thankfully in the bathroom. She felt sick before we got there and since we didn't get her food until right before we left (because someone forgot about it), I'm sure it wasn't the food that made her ill.
4) Little Andrew stole Josie's helium balloon and made her cry.
5) Matthew and Little Andrew had a hay day with helium balloons and quickly consumed all the helium in the balloons and spoke funny for a very long time. I think they ate more helium than food that afternoon.
6) Big Andrew took Little Andrew and Matthew to the washroom and there was only one stall (who designed this place, really?) so Little Andrew got in there first. Matthew was mad and started climbing up the urinal to try to get at Little Andrew. Big Andrew was trying to stop Matthew while holding the door shut for Little Andrew. Somehow Matthew got past Big Andrew and the door, pulled Little Andrew off the toilet and started pounding on him. While they are rolling around on the bathroom floor, two teenage boys walk in, step over the boys and do their business. Big Andrew may or may not have pulled some of his hair out and banged his head up against the wall.
7) Olivia and Sabrina both required diaper changes at the same time. Sabrina managed to leak through her diaper, tights, and pants. We dried the pants on the railing, but Kelli just put her tights in a paper towel...which somehow ended up going missing. We think it got thrown away.
8) The twins, true to babyhood, threw rice and french fries all over the place. All over the place.
9) The waitress brought out the birthday cake about 6 or 7 times before we were finally all there. See, sometimes grown ups were gone changing the twins or trying to find AWOL children. Sometimes the children were gone (with supervision) for a closer look at the divers. Sometimes...well, anyway, we finally got the cake and sang happy birthday and it was throughly embarrassing for everyone (not just Matthew).
10) As we were getting ready to go, Little Andrew threw a major temper tantrum causing the tables next to us to scoot away. I think it took us about 20 minutes to get out of the building.

All in all, I think it was a memorable experience. I'm not sure it is one that I would willingly repeat, but it was...an experience.

Perhaps I'm going to be a mean mom, but I would have thrown in the towel a whole lot sooner. One twin was half naked, Rosie was throwing up, and the boys were being hooligans. I would have said, "There's no cake, there's no ice cream. Happy Birthday. Get in the car, we're leaving."

My sister can be a lot more patient than I can.