Never a dull moment at the Swanson household

Well today has been a one of a kind day. I will start off saying that everyone is home safe and sound. Here is how it went. This morning was actually a very good day. I did the usual. Dropped Kenzie off at school, went to the mall to walk, did story time at the mall with Cam (more on that to follow), and then met a friend for lunch. After lunch Cam and I headed home for his nap. I was downstairs on the computer when I noticed it was time to go get Kenzie. As I got up to get Cam the phone rang. It was an automated message from Kenzie's school. At 1:45 p.m. the school was put on lock down due to police activity and that dismissal would be delayed. Information would be provided when it was available. So of course I started to panic a bit. We live just over a mile(1.1 miles) from the school. When I came home around 2 p.m. everything seemed normal in the neighborhood. So I started to search the Internet for answers. And just my luck my computer wouldn't cooperate. So I quickly called Rob and made him do some searching. We couldn't find any more information. So I decided to take my phone and head across the street to my neighbor Ann's house. Ann and her husband Ben are retired school teachers. They taught for years in the local schools so I knew she would be able to shed a little light on what the process was. In talking to Ann she wondered if this had anything to do with a murder that happened locally on Tuesday. As we were talking we could hear helicopters hovering. If you have been to our house you would know that helicopters are not unusual. We live within walking distance to a hospital that regularly receives medivacs and in the flight path of Quantico and DC. So we went to see where it was. I could see it hoovering in the area where the school was. So now I was starting to get a bit more worried. I got back on the computer and found out that they had tracked a suspect to the murder down to one of the streets very near the school. There are actually three schools very close to this location so they were all put in lock down to protect the children. After what seemed like forever the news reported that they were working on evacuating the kids to a nearby middle school and that we could start picking them up at 6 p.m. I headed there a bit before 6 and the place was a mad house. You would think with all the time they had to plan that there would have been a bit more organization. So from one line to another I patiently waited to get to Kenzie. While in one of the lines one of the teachers recognized me and told me that she knew where Kenzie was and that she was happy and just sitting reading her book. That made things a bit better since I knew that she was ok. Finally after an hour and a half I was reunited with my girl who I have been referring to lately as "Spunky". She said she was a bit scared because they didn't know what was going on but other than that she was ok. She spent her time doing her homework, reading and talking with her friend Haley. She asked me what happened and I explained everything. I also made sure she understood that everything that went on was done to make sure that the kids were 100% safe and that nothing was going to happen to her. She seems to be fine with everything and not concerned in any way. We decided to let her choose something special for me to pick up for dinner and we came home, gave each other lots of hugs and let out a huge sigh of relief. So as you can see there are never any dull moments in the Swanson household. Link to the info