The Little Earthquake that Shook BIG

So, many of you may have heard in the news that Reno has been experiencing hundreds of earthquakes the last few weeks. Well, about a week and a half ago, we got hit by a 4.7 magnitude earthquake. You may think that doesn't sound very strong, but let me tell you, that is the most scared I've been in my whole life. It doesn't help that the epicenters of these earthquakes happens to be less than a mile away from our house.

It happened on a Friday night right before midnight. We had already gone to bed when Evan woke up crying sometime after 11 p.m. I ignored his cries and he went back to sleep for a little bit. But then he woke up again, and I ignored him a second time. Finally, the third time he started crying I got up and fixed him a bottle. When I went into his room, I noticed he had gotten his leg stuck in between the bars of his crib (which he hasn't done in ages). Anyway, I figured I was up already so I might as well give him a bottle. I picked him up and sat in the rocking chair when all of a sudden I felt a strong tremor. I immediately stood up and started walking into the hallway (that's our designated earthquake spot) when it stopped. We've been having LOTS of tremors lately so I figured it was a usual tremor. As I was sitting back down into the chair, that's when the next one hit. This one felt like a mack truck had just rammed into the bottom level of our house. Everything immediately started shaking really bad. I started to run out of Evan's room when all of a sudden his dresser toppled over, just barely missing us. By the time I made it to the hallway, I saw Dallin sprinting down the hall to grab our two other kids. He ran into Jacob's room and I started yelling at him to grab Aubrey too. I crouched down in the hallway, Dallin passed off Jacob to me and then grabbed Aubrey and sat in the hallway until the shaking stopped.

I was terrifed and my kids couldn't stop shaking. Let me tell you, there is nothing worse than seeing your child absolutely terrified. I told Dallin that we needed to get downstairs because I thought it would be safer. We tried going down the stairs, but there was an immediate aftershock. Once that one stopped, we all ran down the stairs as fast as we could. We had about 50 aftershocks that evening. We all slept on a foam mattress in the middle of our hallway that night. I didn't sleep a wink that night because every time I felt a tremor I kept thinking another big one was coming.

Anyway, we've continued having smaller tremors. My nerves have been somewhat shot during all of this. It's hard because I worry so much about getting to all of my three kids during a major earthquake. They're all so little and I just don't know if I could get to all of them if a big one hit.

My parents offered to watch my kids in DC for a while so I took them up on it last week. I flew all of my kids out to DC and left the 2 oldest ones there for two weeks while I flew back to Reno with Evan. We're in the middle of buying a house and renting out our current house so I need to be here in Reno for all of that.

Anyway, I miss my kids terribly but I feel so comfortable knowing they are in a safe place, not worried about upcoming earthquakes. I hope and pray that a big one does not hit Reno. I really worry about what would happen if it happened. So everyone keep Reno in your prayers!

On another much happier note, my Jacob turned 5 last week. We didn't have a big party yet (b/c of everything going on) but we are going to throw him a pirate party when he gets back.


Evan's dresser that almost fell on top of me during the quake


Celebrating Jacob's birthday in DC with the cousins