Braden's Birthday Dinner Fiasco

I always let my kids pick their birthday dinner. While we usually make something at home, Braden has started a tradition of Red Lobster. He was adament. So Dad went to the restaurant a few minutes early on Friday to procure a table (they don't take reservations) and found that there was an hour and a half wait! Nothing is good enough to wait that long for! (Except maybe the Cheesecake Factory) So we convinced Braden that TGI Fridays was the next best thing and he readily concurred because they also have shrimp and he remembers eating there in St. Louis. Well, dad walked over and found that they had CLOSED DOWN!! Now the tears started, Braden could not understand why a restaurant like that would ever close down! After a very long time of trying to reason with him, we FINALLY agreed that Leatherby's was the best choice ever anyway! And of course, once they bust out those ginormous servings of ice cream, shrimp is just a fleeting memory....