The absolute most frustrating day.

Today was a beautiful sunny day in London. Having had many wonderful photo ops over the past year, you would think I had that Christmas card photo done. Well, since L has grown and changed so much, I thought we should take a more current photo and I REALLY wanted one in London with a landmark behind us. NOT SO> wont be happening. Today we rounded up the kids - they were already dragging their heels about having to go have a picture taken. Got on the train and into the city where we needed to be. Took about an hour shooting some pictures, trying to get just what we wanted with the background and lighting and all PLUS a decent smile on the kid's faces. you've all been there, you know what I mean.
DA and L went back home so L could get to a ice skating party at Hampton Court Palace. B and I went shopping at Harrod's (C-R-A-Z-Y!).
Then, get this, DA calls me later in the afternoon, funny tone in his voice and asks me very softly if I happened to change out the memory card in the camera. "Uh, no." He then informs me even more softly that the photos are not there. Not there. Just not there! I suggest other methods for him to check and come to find out - The photos are no where to be found!!!???!!!! I think our memory card was corrupted or something. It keeps saying, "card not formatted". Which it was working while we were there. We scrolled through them several times, zoomed in, etc. The memory card was in the camera.
After that little bit of information, B has informed me she WILL NOT be taking any more pictures in London. I'm not really one to put up with a comment like that, but as much as I wanted that photo, I don't really want to spend my 1 hour of daylight in the afternoon running back to the city for a picture. SO< when you get your Christmas card, just know it should have been our little family in front of Parliament/Big Ben, instead, we have a wonderful shot taken by our friend, Bryan Urban. (Thanks Bryan. I love it), but L has grown about 4" since then and gotten contacts, so he is looking like a boy in the photo instead of the young man he is growing into.
I always thought photos would get easier as my kids got older, what happened?