It Was Sort of Magical. And Kind of Mysterious. But a Definite Success.

So, February 29.  Cool day, huh?

At about 1:00pm on Wednesday, February 29, I became obsessed with the idea of doing something AMAZING for February 29, something uber-cool that we could do as a family to celebrate and make it a family tradition, every four years.  Yup, a little late on the planning there.

Connor was supposed to attend a Cub Scout banquet that evening, which would have been a pretty cool February 29 thing - it was special.  BUT Connor was in the middle of one of his "Asperger's cycles."  An Asperger cycle is a series of "Asperger's moments" that tortuously turn into a cycle.  Like, a month-long cycle.  Meaning that Connor wasn't capable of being in social situations successfully (without meltdowns).  So, we took the easy way out and we nixed the Banquet (so sorry again to Amanda P., Connor's fabulous Scout leader), which left a hole in our February 29 social calendar.

Mark was fortunately (or unfortunately for him) home that afternoon as I started frantically trying to think of something.  I loved the idea of February 29 being a special "portal" day to enter into a magical land that was only opened once every 4 years.  DISNEYLAND!  Yes!!  However, trying to plan a trip for 5 people to Disneyland ON THE SAME DAY proved to be….well, not financially viable.  Not to mention jobs, pets, appointments, etc, that would have to be juggled.  I tried to talk Mark into a trip to Medieval Times in New Jersey, thinking that would be magical enough.  Nope, that didn't work.  We looked up "unique" and "creative" hotels in unique and creative and magical places like Rochester and Watertown AND, not surprisingly, came up empty.  Bwa ha!

ANYHOO, we (meaning I, making Mark join me) persevered, and here's how we EPICLY (epically?) celebrated February 29, 2012.

We picked up the kids from school (which they loved) and told them we were wisking them off on a magical February 29 adventure.  And we were starting with dinner at a never-before-gone-to super-exciting restaurant, Syracuse's own legendary Dinosaur BBQ!

They were all excited.  Until we got there.  And were seated.  And Noah stated, "This is JUST a normal restaurant."  Which it's really not.   If you're from New York, you've heard of the Dinosaur.  It really is famous.  Not classy.  But famous!  But not among the first grade crowd, evidently.  I even told Noah that SOMEWHERE SOMEONE in CHINA at THIS VERY MOMENT had heard of the Dinosaur in Syracuse NY and had eaten there and loved it.  (Noah is fascinated with China and "China people.")  That still didn't excite him.

But THEN the kids discovered the graffiti-covered walls.  WOWIE!  This was even cooler than Bonefish Grill (a fancy restaurant that lets you draw on the paper tablecloths)!!  You could draw ON THE WALLS!!  So now, the Ritchie family has left their mark on the Dinosaur.  Woohoo.

Here's Connor's contribution:

We discovered this behind Noah's head and joked about him misspelling his name.  And when was he there in 2011 without us anyway??

Random Photo Insert:  Here's what Noah would look like as a zombie.  He's VERY proud of this photo, since he is a self-proclaimed "awesome Zombie hunter."  Takes one to know one?  I dunno.

 

One strange thing did occur  - when our waitress came over to meet us and take our orders, she said, "Hey, you guys look like you've been here before and know the ropes."  Which we hadn't, and didn't.  But it made me feel kinda cool.  Did we look like an uber-cool, hip family who eats at the cool city places instead of stodgy old suburban Carrabbas?  Neat!  And our tattoos weren't even showing!  (Bwa ha again!)

(Yes, I graffitied myself out of this photo.  I was coming off a week with strep throat and was looking pretty........uncomely.   I found that word by doing a synonym search for unattractive.  Here's the definition of uncomely - deformed, hard on the eyes, homely, not beautiful, not much for looks, not much to look at, ordinary, plain-featured, short on looks, unattractive, unlovely.  Pretty much all of those would apply to this photo, OKAY?)

Now feeling fat and somewhat happy (the food was just okay), we moved on with the next portion of our magical February 29 getaway.  We told the kids that I'd received a mysterious email directing us to find a portal to the future, and we were following the coordinates on the map on our phone.  The coordinates took us to……the unique and creative and magical land of….CLAY, New York (which is 7 miles from our house), and, the……Fairfield hotel!  At which point, Noah grumpily pointed out, "Hey, this is where we go shopping.  This isn't very exciting."

Mark went into the hotel to "check on the coordinates and find the portal."  When he mysteriously didn't return, I took the kids into the hotel and found the "secret room" and when we ventured inside, found two magical portal rings.  Again, Noah grimly informed us, "Those are just hula hoops laying on the floor."   But a secret note instructed them to take turns standing inside one hoop, and then MAGICALLY a wizard appeared (ahem, which was Mark dressed in a wizard cap and cloaked in a hotel blanket) in the other hoop.  The wizard then informed each kid of what their lives would be like in 2016.  Which I recorded on video, but am too lazy to include here now.  Sorry to those of you who are breathlessly waiting to hear about the mysterious magical portal to the future!  But here's photos of the wizard hat in action!

 (check out Connor glaring from behind the bathroom door)

We also wrote notes to ourselves about what we wanted to be or do in 2016 and sealed them up in a family time capsule envelope, which we'll open during whatever our February 29, 2016 magical adventure is.  If we're still here in NY, maybe we'll open them at the Dinosaur!  Because I don't foresee going back before then, since the food was HIGHLY overrated.  In my ever-so-humble opinion.

In the end, we didn't need magical portals, because we had a room right across from the swimming pool.  When will we learn that a plain old non-magical and non-unique hotel with a swimming pool is magical enough for our kids???  And also, when will we start saving our money on hotels so we can afford to put in our own pool and not have to go to hotels anymore??? (I hate hotels.)

While Mark went to get the swimming stuff from the car, I told the kids to get undressed and ready to go.  NEVER have they moved so quickly in getting undressed!!  And here they are all waiting for Mark to return with their swimsuits!

Here's a valuable tip - going to a hotel in the middle of a school week on a school night pretty much guarantees you the pool to yourself!  Hallelujah for that!

Connor is his absolute happiest self when he's swimming.  No dreaded Asperger's moments on this trip.  Which I suppose made it worth every penny.

Noah, in true Grandpa Davis fashion (famous for his love of hot tub lounging), discovered the hot tub.  And loved it.  And didn't swim again.  And stayed in the hot tub like this until his legs were lobster red and we forcibly removed him from the hot tub.

This particular hotel didn't have in-room movies (DRAT!  SERIOUS oversight on my planning part) so we resorted to the always-popular hotel bed jumping Olympics:

Between a huge meal, pondering their futures after hearing the mysterious wizard speak, swimming for hours and bed jumping celebrations, they all crashed:

Poor Mark/aka Wizard was "flooring" it for this adventure.  On previous hotel stays, we've always been able to bribe either Connor or Noah with $20 bucks to sleep on the floor, but they've wised up to us and learned that sleeping on the floor was not worth a measley $20 anymore.  So, Mark got to do it.  For free. 

Yup, everyone was crashed, except me.  Who was still up taking photos.  Because I hate hotels and couldn't sleep.  BUT, I love any excuse to create fun times and memories for my little kid gang.  And now I have 4 more years to plan for the next magical portal adventure!