earthquakes, irene, and delaware

on tuesday, august 23rd, around 1:50 pm, while the kids and i were home, we began to hear a rumbling sound, like a lawn mower, getting steadily louder and louder.  thinking at first there was some nearby construction beginning in our street, i went towards the windows to see, but before i got even a few steps towards the front door, the sound became a loud grinding and the whole house began to shake alarmingly.  i could hear things starting to fall off walls and shelves and crash to the floor.  mimi ran to me, calling out in a fearful voice, mommy, what's happening?!? 

i think it's an earthquake, i said, as matter of factly as i could, trying to be calm while also trying to figure out what we should do next.  mimi clung to me, sobbing, "i'm scared.  are we going to die?"  i start moving towards the door, waiting to see if we needed to bolt out the door immediately or if it was going to stop soon, as all the previous earthquakes in the area had been small and very short lived,  and as i debated i realized we were standing under a rattling chandelier in the foyer.  oy!   i say  "no, we're going to be okay." as we back away from the swinging fixture, and preparing to grab ozzy and make a run thru the door before it could fall.

and just like that, it was over.  "see, it's done and we're all okay."  i tell her.  she's still visibly shaken, but clearly relieved that it seemed to be over and we were all okay.  the first thing i did was get on facebook, and all the statuses came rolling in that confirmed that it was indeed an earthquake: 5.8!  i called rob to make sure he was okay, then i called my parents, then tried to reach other family members in richmond.  everyone was fine.  there were a couple aftershocks, but the kids didnt notice them.  one happened around 8pm while they were in the bathtub, too busy playing to notice, although i felt and heard the rumble, saw the water in the tub sloshing a little, but the kids remained oblivious, concentrating so much on their play.  and then another aftershock around 1:30, while the kids were asleep and i was in bed reading.

life returned to normal for a few days, and then the hurricane came.

hurricane Irene, which made landfall in north carolina. (was it friday, august 26th? i can't remember. i think it was.)  i was worried that my parents would be hurt by falling trees, so i got them to agree to leave before the hurricane hit, as it was expected to hit their area still as a category 3 hurricane.  so they went to richmond to stay with my aunt until the storm passed.  when they got back after the storm, they reported that the winds did knock some trees down and it did some damage to my parents house. 

Irene was a category 1 by the time it hit here, maybe not even that for the fairfax area, with nothing more serious than a power outage in our neighborhood.  (not surprising, 'cuz if you so much as breathe on a wire around here, the power goes out.)  so when the winds picked up around 1 am, i was shocked the power stayed on thru 45 minutes of screeching winds, heavy rain, and bowing trees.  the power went out at 1:45a.m. with a bright explostion of blue as a transformer behind our house blew out and wasnt back on until just after 3pm, 13 hours later.  so we had to ice down all of our perishable food in coolers, which feels like a biannual event with all the outages we usually experience.  after this most recent episode, we decided it was time to get a generator to plug in the fridge from here on out.  

after we got power, we went to a birthday party across the street.  when i got back home with the kids, DH informed me the trip to DE was still on, that traveling restrictions had been lifted and the rental offices were open.  so we packed up the car and went to delaware that evening to join several friends and their families for an end of summer beach trip.  because of the hurricane, two of the families that intended to join us for the early part of the week had to cancel out, but even without those 4 adults and 3 kids, we were still at a full house with 10 adults and 8 kids!  mimi loved having a house full of kids to play with.  ozzy had his moments when he enjoyed the company and other moments when he was upset that everything didnt go his way. lol.  he still has a lot to learn, but there were some good teachable moments in there that only a gaggle of kids together can provide.  compromise being a big one.  when he's 3.5-4 y.o. he'll really get it, but in the meantime, it's good for him to approximate the behaviors.

here's some pictures from the trip.  we stayed in a beautiful house at The Peninsula, which is a private, gated, golf course community (signature jack nicklaus, which i know nothing about), with lots of nice resort-like amenities.

it didnt take long for the kids to take over the place!

the view from our bedroom window, overlooking the backyard and the neighborhood.

ozzy and natalie enjoying the view and breeze from the screened in patio.

 

 

 

the little kids enjoying one of many pools.  ozzy loved being in the water...i was a little nervous about him being in deep water with just that tube, but he did great.  he kept trying to do 'tricks' and would do some gyrations and then look at me and say, "did you saw that?  did you see what i did?!?  did you saw that?  mom!  watch this!" 

wave pool.  kids had fun with it.  ozzy told me he didnt care for the waves, but he liked it when it stopped (every 15 min).

enjoying a meal poolside.

at the Candy Kitchen on the boardwalk (rehoboth.  there's DH in the background. 

ice cream with sprinkles!!!  YEAH!  (i love his expression here. he was trying to give me a wink.)

at Fun Land.  ozzy enjoyed all the rides, and cried when he couldnt ride the bumper cars b/c he was too little.  i have been using that sad moment as a way to encourage him to eat more, so he can grow taller and ride the bumper cars one day!

looking very comfortable in a boat!

dinner out.

back at the beach.  ozzy's favorite past time: digging!  he literally spent all day digging.

and digging

still digging.

and sometimes tagging along after mimi.

mimi enjoyed the water!  mostly jumping the waves.

the kids got loads of time to play, do activities in the play/activities room, swim in the pools, play at the beach, chase geese, Fun Land, etc.  DH got to golf (twice).  and i got in some tax free shopping at the outlets.  and we came home with two hermit crabs.  :)

it was a good trip.  and now it's back to reality and the start of school.  mimi, who usually looks forward to school, started saying, "i wish i could learn everything and it could stay summer vacation."

i'm thinking, that's a pretty good wish!  just throw in some endless cash flow.  next to wishing for unlimited wishes, it's probably one of the best wishes you could wish for.