A few last random pictures

Here are a few random pictures of my stay at my sisters. First off, Natalie fell asleep on the floor. Tessa tried to wake her up and when she wasn't successful, decided to cover Natalie up with a blanket. Then I guess she decided that it looked comfortable, so she crawled under the blanket and fell asleep too. SO ADORABLE
Natalie fell asleep on the floor again. And Tessa attempted to wake her up again. I wish this is how I woke up each morning:


This time, Tessa fell asleep. Like Wednesday Addams.
Here's Tessa showing me how to work the TV. Her look is saying "I can't believe you don't know how to do this"
Then she decided to REALLY be a ham:
And here she is being a sweetheart
And here's Natalie and I. Too bad my finger blocked some of the flash, because this was the only good one of both of us in a bunch of attempts at pictures:)

Zoo part two

Next on the list of things to do at the zoo were the kimodo dragons. They are a very dangerous animal. One of the dragons they had was so dangerous, it had to be kept in isolation from the other dragons. My warped little nieces were the cutest while looking at these deadly animals. They are TOTALLY each others' best friend. Here are some pictures of the cuteness. These were NOT posed, they did this all on their own. The first one is my favorite:


The girls wanted to "go swimming" with the sea lion and wanted to climb through/over the gate:
One of their highlights of the zoo was the play ground. Figures.
Natalie hung out by the spinny slide and went down that thing like twenty times
Tessa loved playing in the mist maker. This was especially entertaining to me after the experience at the splash park (see earlier post). Watch the video and at the very end, you can tell she's part Italian (well, it looks like it, but that she doesn't realize it lol)


Overall, it was VERY fun. It was tough to get them off the playground to see other animals. We had to bribe them. Oh, kids. Papa Hargis and Aunt Caca were pretty tired by the end, and even better, so were Natalie and Tessa. I think we ALL slept very well that night. Have I mentioned that I adore my nieces?

Taking the monkeys to the zoo

Next big event was the LA Zoo. Papa Hargis (my dad) and I took the girls to the zoo. I hadn't been since I was little and all I remembered was a two headed snake, so I had a blast, and so did the girls so I think it was a success. The petting zoo was closed, which was a major bummer especially because that was one of the main reasons we went to the LA zoo. The pachyderm exhibit was under construction too, but that turned out to be okay because Tessa didn't want to see the
"lelaphants" because they apparently spit at people. Right inside the gates the girls were mesmerized by the seals:
Then we got a day pass for the tram. BEST INVESTMENT EVER!!! You can ride to and from different parts of the park an unlimited amount of times. SO WORTH IT. Plus, it was a hit:
Here, they're enjoying looking at something, I can't remember what. I love the smile reflected in the glass:
There was this HUGE orangutan that the girls liked initially, when he climbed up on the ledge and sat against the glass, it was HILARIOUS watching all the little kids scatter. Then they slowly walked back up to the glass.
We got to watch the monkey pick it's nose:

Monkey see, monkey do:
As a snack we found a place that sold..
Churros!!! We also got to see the "giraffees". There was a mommy, a daddy, and a baby giraffee. The daddy kept giving the baby kisses...or maybe cleaning bugs off him, but the first option sounds better:
There was this guy pushing a lot of strollers...in a stroller. The creepy thing, there were no kids around him. Anyways, I went to take a picture and Natalie realized neither she nor her sister were in the picture, and fixed that right away.

Splash Park

So, there is this little splash park not that far from my sister's house. I decided to take the girls. They were very excited to wear their swim suits. Natalie (I think) kept saying her diaper needed to be changed because it was wet, and didn't believe me when I said it was okay (I wasn't being cruel, it was a swimmers diaper). The weren't too keen on being squirted, but they LOVED squirting other people. They were also okay when I carried them through the different sprinkler like thingies. Here's a video of their favorite "toy there". Natalie's in the green Little Mermaid swim suit and Tessa's in the purple Tinkerbell one.



Here's Tessa being a ham:

Here's Natalie spraying other kids:
Here's Tessa patiently waiting in line for this boy who was hogging the sprayer...he was a little brat, which was encouraged by his mother (but I'm not bitter). I have to admit I was a little proud of her when she told him "IT'S MY TURN NOW".
Here are the girls trying to get the water off of there "pitty swim suits":
And last but not least, this was their favorite activity there:
Aren't they so adorable? Maybe now that they know what the splash park is, they'll be more adventuresome the next time they go.

More pictures

So I didn't finish my "summer of pictures" in a week...sue me. Here was the next event of the summer. Natalie and Tessa's first trip to Momo's. I.e. the BEST sushi place ever. Of course, they didn't eat sushi, but Tessa was a natural at chopsticks. She was able to pick up her Cheez its with normal chopsticks, then they brought out the "kiddie chop sticks" which have this little mechanism that makes them easier to use. After failing at her attempt to pick up "nemenemens" (M&Ms) with them, she found Cheez its were a piece of cake with chop sticks. Here is a demonstration of the nemenemens...and sort of using them to pick up cheez its:


Here's a video of Tessa using the chopsticks normally. She looks like she does it everyday!