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1 Comment [ View ]It's the real deal
By RACHEL J. TROTTERCelebrating that special day every fourth year
SOUTH OGDEN -- It's only taken 84 years, but Lorraine Jensen will finally be "legal" Feb. 29 -- she'll be 21 years old, in leap years. She and many others will finally get to celebrate a birthday that only comes every four years, or for some an anniversary, a day they have chosen to celebrate only every four years.
Jensen has been joking about finally being legal for quite some time now as she looks forward to her leap year birthday.
"It's a special one for me," Jensen said. "It's great. I get more telephone calls from people I don't hear from for years," Jensen said of her birthday.
Nearly 12-year-old Landon Weeks will officially be 3 on Friday, and he plans to celebrate in style. He will have a leap-year party at a gymnastics studio with about 90 of his closest friends.
"We have a way huge party," Landon's mom, Lanette Weeks, said of her son's birthday. She usually tries to center it around the "leap frog" theme, and this year is no different with frog invitations and a "leaping trampoline" at a gymnastics studio being the activity.
"It's a good cause for celebration and excuse to have a party," said Landon's dad, Matt Weeks.
Landon loves having a birthday on a unique day and it has helped him have something to talk about with people.
"It has been a good conversation piece," Matt Weeks said.
The Weeks family didn't intend to have Landon on a leap year day -- his due date was in March, but when complications arose from the pregnancy, Lanette Weeks ended up having Landon on leap year.
"I didn't feel as bad about it as some of my friends. I was just glad to have him here," Lanette Weeks said.
Landon likes to joke about being the biggest 2-year-old ever and jokes that he plans to take advantage of special kids' things for a long time.
"I'll get the children's price at a restaurant," he joked.
Lanette Weeks said they usually celebrate Landon's birthday on the last day of February and have a regular party, but by Feb. 29 every four years it's an all-out riot.
For Clearfield couple Gaylynne Shakespeare and her husband Dave, they chose Feb. 29 to get married, but have had lots of fun with the every-four-years celebration.
"I love holidays, so to get married on a unique holiday like Feb. 29, it was great," Gaylynne Shakespeare said.
It was her husband's idea to marry on the odd day, but she was happy to oblige.
"He just liked it because of the uniqueness of the day, and I felt okay about it," Gaylynne Shakespeare said.
She made a deal with him that if they married on leap year day, they had to celebrate big every four years. So far, they have kept true to that idea.
"People have teased me that now my husband doesn't have to celebrate our anniversary every year, but he doesn't get off that easy," she joked.
They still celebrate every year, and each of them picks which day they will celebrate, Feb. 28 or March 1.
"We don't tell each other, so it's a surprise to see who will surprise who," she said.
They have been married for 12 years, but only three in leap years. This year they haven't decided what their plans are, but they may include their two daughters since it falls near a weekend.
"We could spend the weekend with them, and it would be a lot of fun," she said.
She has never met anyone else with the same anniversary, but Landon Weeks and Jensen have found quite a few who share their birthday.
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Happy Birthday, to one of the coolest young men, I have ever met.
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