Mommy, why does everybody have a bomb?

("1999" by Prince)

So early this morning - around ten after midnight, actually - there was a very strong knock on the door.

Turns out, it was two Las Vegas Metro Police officers, who informed us that we needed to evacuate our house because they had found an "explosive device" in the park behind our home.

I grabbed Irina (who was still sleeping at that point) and Saren and Harper began getting their shoes on while Steph grabbed Silas. At one point, one of the officers asked me how many people were in the residence, and I was still half asleep and answered, "Five." I did a quick (or somewhat slowed) mental count and corrected myself, "I mean six." Gah. Talk about a Homer moment.

The plan, according to the cops, was to have the neighborhood go down to the Wal-mart parking lot, where some buses would be ordered for us all to sit in and wait.

They said that we could drive our van down if we wanted to, and we were going to do that, but it turns out that Silas' car seat cover was not put together at the time, and we didn't know if we had the time to put it together, so we just opted to walk the short distance down to Wal-mart.

As we were walking down the street, looking at all the police and fire vehicles littering the road, we noticed that no other neighbors were making the exodus. It felt very weird. Almost like a really elaborate prank against us. (Surely that feeling was a combination of shock and lack of sleep, though)

We got to Wal-mart, and there was nobody else there, either. Or at least, nobody that we could tell was from our neighborhood. The greeter saw us and asked if we needed a shopping cart. (Heh) We explained the situation to her, and she offered us some seats at the McDonald's inside the store (and also told us of the time she was working at another Wal-mart where a gas station exploded so they evacuated that neighborhood).
The greeter, a few minutes later, came by and told us that she was going to treat us to anything we wanted from McDonald's, in case we were hungry. The girls (and I) did want a tiny snack, so even though we both refused her kindness at first, she insisted, so we ordered a few cheeseburgers, some nuggets, and 2 drinks.
The food helped make the time go a little quicker.

I went outside to check to see where the bus was, and saw another woman who had been evacuated. She said that the person living next to her had been picked up by a family member, but she was just waiting for the bus like we were. I told her to come inside the Wal-mart where it was warmer. A police officer drove up at that point and informed us that the bus would be there within ten minutes.

I asked him if he knew how long it would be until we could return to our homes. He didn't know, but said it could take up to 3 hours. Ugh.

I went back inside, and told the family the deal.

Then, about ten minutes later, the bus did show up. We boarded, as well as a rather cranky old woman who is one of our neighbors, and we all sat on the bus for approximately 30-40 minutes. Well, Irina played. She was having a grand ol' time. :)

At 1:25am, the police officer I had seen earlier came on board the bus, telling us that it would be about another 20-25 minutes until we could go home. Hooray!

At around 1:50, we were told we could go home. We made the short walk back to the house, wondering if any of the cops would tell us what happened (most of them were already getting back into their cars and leaving). We did stop one really young officer who was removing the yellow police tape as we passed, "What was it?"

He chuckled and said somewhat embarrassed, "It was a smoking bong."

A bong?

Not a bomb?

Not a buh-- ?[/Airplane]

Nope. A bong. *sigh* Well, at least we were all safe and sound back in our house, and able to get some sleep. Although I have to admit that I could easily use a few more hours.