After visiting the glow worm caves, it's not much further to Hamilton. We dropped Steve off to do a session at the temple, then picked him up afterward, just as it was getting dark. We were so excited to visit the temple at night, as we had heard that they light the grounds for Christmas, similar to other temples like Salt Lake and Washington DC. We had really missed seeing Christmas lights this season! In our neighborhoods in Utah, nearly everyone lights the outside of their homes for Christmas, but here in Palmy we only saw two or three homes lit in the whole city. The Hamilton temple grounds were magical, and it was fun to see how many visitors came from around the area to enjoy the beautiful lights!
Backing up a bit… while we were waiting for Steve to finish his session at the temple, the kids enjoyed playing at the park where we camped:
Cameron even spotted a parrot flying around the campground! I tried to get a photo, but the bird flew away. It was so colorful and beautiful.
The next morning, I woke up early and got ready to head to the temple for my session. I couldn't resist taking a few pics of my cute sleeping kids (they'll be so thrilled that I'm posting these photos, ha ha).
It warms my heart to witness all six of my little chicks sleeping in one place. That doesn't happen very often. I marvel that they are mine, but also that I'm theirs. It humbles me.
After my temple session, I was cheerfully greeted by my crew. As you can see, it was a glorious day!
We headed straight to Raglan, a really fun and relaxed beach town about 45 minutes from Hamilton.
We stopped at the swimming beach, suited up in our togs, lathered on the sunscreen, gathered all of our towels and toys, etc., and proceeded down the very steep path to the beach. We had been hearing from our friends/family in Utah about a terrible ice storm they were dealing with, and as we stood at the top of the hill, overlooking the ocean and enjoying this amazing view, I actually felt a little guilty…for about 3 seconds.
Alas, despite the perfect weather and beautiful scenery, we were quickly reminded that life with toddler twins isn't always a fairy-tale. We had scarcely gotten our things laid out onto the beach when both Luke and Landon started to seriously melt down. They didn't like wearing sunscreen. It was too windy. The water was too cold. They had poopy diapers. The sun was too bright. Someone's dog came over and sniffed them and scared them (it probably smelled the diapers). Uggh!
After only about 30 minutes, we had to abandon the whole operation. It just wasn't working. We headed back to town, found a park, and made some lunch while the kids played. Emily enjoyed posing for a picture:
We had planned to spend more time in Raglan, but the twins were in desperate need of a good nap, so we made the quick decision to drive 3 1/2 hours to New Plymouth, on the central-western tip of the North Island. Just as we hoped, Luke and Landon fell right to sleep, and we enjoyed a lovely drive.
The twin (one day I will be able to name them individually!) sleeping with he hands behind his head is too cute - my arms would be dead in 5 minutes!
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