Hello Cuties,<br /><br />

I have a story to tell. My daughter's MIL asked her to go with them on a trip, to help her with the driving, since her husband no longer drives except around home. <br /><br />
Now Ashley has 4 children, but she was just taking the little ones with them. The baby is a little over two months and nursing, and Nora is 2 1/2 years old.<br /><br />
They also invited a grandson, that is 16 and he brought along a friend. He has his driving permit and is a very good driver, but can only drive with a licensed driver with him. (He has learned driving in the fields, from an earlier age, as his dad is a farmer.)<br /><br />
The first leg of the trip was a 9 hour drive, stay overnight in hotel, then go to a wedding the next day.<br /><br />
Well, this should have been a 'sign' how things were to go.....<br /><br />
First, the car seats wouldn't fit where they were going to place them, so they had to put them on the far back seat.(at, the last minute the MIL didn't go in her SUV but her sons brand new SUV). There were 4 captain seats, but the two middle ones wouldn't adjust to slide forward, so that meant that my daughter had to climb into the rear seat and sit between the two car seats. There was very little leg space, because the captain chairs wouldn't move, so no one else could sit there, because all the others were too tall to fit, so she couldn't even help with the driving! She said the 16 year old drove very well, so someone was able to help the MIL.<br /><br />
Second, the first night at the hotel, the boys unloaded the luggage. Ashley had told them she wouldn't need her camera, to just leave it in the SUV. ...Well, they brought it to her room with her luggage anyway.<br /><br />
When checking out of the hotel the next morning, after getting herself and the two little ones dressed, baby nursed, she was carrying the baby, the diaper bag, the camera and keeping up with the almost 3 year old. She sat the diaper bag on the floor, the camera on the counter and held the 2 month old while checking out.<br /><br />
The wedding they went to was beautiful. It was at the grooms family home and the grounds were breath taking.<br /><br />
Thirdly, after the ceremony, her and her MIL were in line for the reception/food and the boys came and told them the FIL was ready to go. Ashley said, they didn't get to eat! She also wanted to talk/visit with some of the other guest, after driving so far but.....they left! She said FIL is like that!?//!!?? They had to then go to a restaurant to eat.<br /><br />
They drove a few more hours that day onto their last destination, spent a few days there, before coming home.<br /><br />
Upon arriving at Ashley's home, they unloaded her luggage and NO CAMERA. She tried to think where she could have left it, where was the last place she had it? <br /><br />
She remembered the counter, on the first morning they checked out, before traveling on. It had to be there! She called and called, and cried and cried, and finally was able to get a REAL person on the line. Then they told her she would have to call back, between this hour & that hour, to speak with the manager. She cried again.<br /><br />
The next day, she called the manager and he made her describe the camera, was it in a bag, etc,etc. She told it was a Canon camera with two long lens, she told him what else was in the bag. She couldn't remember the name of the bag, but it was a generic bag, she told him, not a name brand. She said she had just given birth, all her baby photos were still on it. He finally said, Yeah, we have it! Yea!!!! <br /><br />
He asked her how she planned to retrieve it, since they were already back home. She told him her aunt lived nearby and she would pick it up for her. My sister came over today and it is now on my kitchen table:)<br /><br />
The manager told her that when guest leave something, it goes into Lost & Found, for 3 weeks. After that it is given to Goodwill. Ashley said , Can you imagine my $1,000. camera being sold at Goodwill?!!!<br /><br />
I was surprised she hadn't missed it, before going home. I suppose with two little ones in tow, no husband to help, and a FIL with peculiar ways it was easy to get distracted. So glad it turned out well and she got her photos back. She said she had made a copy of all the birth photos but............the copy was in the camera bag!!! .................ps. Received this photo in a text that read, 'Gus is happy to be going home!'