I purchased an ipad 2 they day bfore i left to go on a month long vacation with my 2 yr old daughter, we took so many photos that i had to keep transferring them to my ipad. When i got back i plugged it into my lap top. Ishould have been paying attention but with one touch of an incorrect button i lost everything. Apparently it sync'ed with an old version of itunes i have for an ipod on the laptop. All is lost. Is there any way they can be recovered - im desperate, we willnever get to these places againin my life time sooo upset - please help....

Sorry to have to be the one to break it to you but, unfortunately, the answer is yes, there is a good chance the photos are gone for good. You could try restoring from your last iCloud backup, but that's a long shot.

Did you by chance perform a backup before iTunes synced your photos into oblivion?