So the "talk of the town" here has been all about the 3 (yes, you read it right) earthquakes we had over last weekend. I decided that these events definitely need to make it into my next blog book so here it is.It was crazy! We were sitting watching The Count of Monte Cristo (the kids were upstairs watching Napolean Dynamite) when it felt like something big crashed onto the roof of our house. John's version is that he thought a car had crashed into the corner of our house. It was like an explosion that caused our house to vibrate from the impact! It lasted like maybe 3 seconds is all. Needless to say my heart stopped and John jumped up and went through the house and outside to see what he could find. Because I didn't know what it was I was nervous for him to go outside. The kids came running downstairs and Luke started crying because it scared him. We soon found out it was an Earthquake. The epicenter was in the field just kiddy corner to our house which is why is was so loud and booming. We talked to neighbors and ward members and laughed about our 2.8 quake and moved on.
Luke woke up sick on Saturday and had a high fever Saturday night. We all went to bed and at 2:30 in the morning we woke up to another rattle boom and to the sound a of - 1. The stuff on top of our fireplace falling down and 2. Luke screaming and freaking out to the point that I thought he was seriously hurt. No big deal - just another earthquake! Poor Luke was so feverish and out of it that it just about did him in. This time Kaycee even started crying. It was all the talk at church Sunday morning - 2 earthquakes, 2 days in a row. It felt kind of strange. It even brought the local channels out and was the top story on channel 5.
Well about 6pm the house and the walls start shaking again. This time John held on to the tin stars on the fireplace, I watched the pictures shake and ran upstairs to Luke who doesn't even cry. Kaycee let out a weird kind of yelp and that was it. 3rd earthquake over! By this time it just seems ridiculous. I have now been in 6 (minor)earthquakes - 2 in California and 4 here at my house. Of all of them, these were by far the shortest but the most scary of them all!!! The experts say that earthquakes happen all the time in Utah - just usually in remote locations where nobody can feel them. A guy in our ward told me that some had written on facebook that Earthquakes are to Utah like Snow is to Texas. It made me laugh. I know everything is fine but it was a good reminder to be prepared. We all know that we are long overdue for a "big one" and when a little one happens it always makes you think "is this going to be the big one?" and it makes you evaluate your life.
For family night last nite we decided to go through our 72 hour kit and renew them and also come up with an earthquake plan. As it turns out the last time we did our 72 hour kit was April 2007 - almost 4 years ago! As you can imagine the food was pretty gross and the kids clothes were way too small. We even had a sippy cup and little blanket for Luke in it. We replenished everything with a vow to recylce it once a year. It was good to do it on Valentine's day because it makes it an easy target day to remember each year. Even though our food and stuff was old I had forgotten how good our 72 hour kit is. We have a lot of great and useful stuff stemming back from the days that I felt the need to get prepared! May our home be earthquake free for the next 100 years!
P.S. I am loving the weather here!!! To bad more snow is on the way!