All Points Bulletin

Alley probably won't remember this because she is 10 months old and because she slept through all of it - but it was an exciting Christmas Eve. We left Ortonville, after visiting Alley's grandparents, at around 7:00 pm - right when she fell asleep for the night. We had just crossed the county border and was approaching a small town when a sheriff's vechile passed us on the highway. Rob swore, as the patrol car turned around as soon as it passed us. Rob slowed down, as he had been speeding and we held our breaths. He eventually turned on his lights and then we really started to panick. Not only was Rob speeding but we realized that we never got the front license plates on the car after we bought it recently. The license plate was even in the glove compartment and we had a screw driver - just not the right screws to place it. I started rummaging through the glove compartment because I also realized that I didn't think we had a current proof of insurance card. I was still rummaging through the glove compartment when the deputy came up - he said "This is probably the strangest stop I have ever had." I thought immediately that we were actually going to get a ticket for not having our license plates on. He then went on to say "I have a description of a vehicle from the neighboring county ---". I thought he had an Amber alert and we fit the description. I thought "this is our child, really, don't take her!" But he continued by saying that we had left our baby formula back in Ortonville. He explained that there was nothing open on the highway - so he thought we might want to turn back. We thanked him profusely and wished him a "Merry Christmas".

We couldn't beleive it! We checked our cell phones right away - but there is no coverage in this part of rural Minnesota. We then realized that not only had we forgot our formula, but we forgot all the bottles and baby food too. We decided to turn around, as even in the big metropolis of Fargo it might be hard to find all the replacements on Christmas day. So we returned to Ortonville to my anxouisly waiting mother who had called an A.P.B. on us on Christmas Eve :) And Alley slept through all of it.