Hovander Park

How is it that you can live less than 15 miles away from something for 6 years and not know about it? This is a really cool state park called Hovander park. There is so much cool information to be read in that link and even if you aren't local and may never visit the park yourself, you should go read it! It is right beside Tennant Lake, which is cool in itself with it's boardwalks and learning center and is alongside the Nooksack River. The park was originally a homestead for a Swedish family that immigrated here in 1897. Hokan Hovander was an architect and he designed the barn and the house for his family homestead. The homestead was restored in 1971 to become part of Whatcom county parks.

There are lots of animals for the kids to look at, feed and there was much laughter. I had so much fun taking photos of them! Cows, horses, pigs, rabbits, geese, chickens, ducks, sheep, turkeys and a whole family of peacocks, I had never seen baby peacocks before. (The mom is called a peahen, so I wonder if the babies are peachicks?)

Gracie the goose comes out of her pen for a visit.

The "alpha" goose, or should I just say, the noisiest!

Gobble Gobble! Actually, I never heard the turkeys gobble, but when they puff themselves up they sure do thump like a drum!

The water tower... see Drooler all the way up there?

Um, I am certain he was being held- this is safer than it looks!

Chiquita's lovely halo.

Baby Cake's famous facial expression is so much like Drooler's was at this age.

Gazing

Little D swinging, I caught him right at the top.

Little boys are so adventerous. Drooler and Little D two discovered a sandy hole far away from the group.

This house was completed in 1903 and tours are available for free! We didn't have time to tour it this time, but I hope to tour it next summer as it is mostly a summer attraction. It is surrounded by beautiful gardens of flowers and vegetables, which I will probably post about next.

Esther and Chiquita. You aren't allowed to pick the apples in the orchard, so we chose some from the ground to eat as a snack. As long as you ate around the bruise from where they landed after falling, they were so yummy!

You don't get apples like this in the grocery store!

Have you ever seen an artichoke bloom?! It is so beautiful!

A pumpkin hanging from a teepee constructed from three posts. The kids had fun playing inside the teepee of pumpkin plants as well as the miniature corn maze, but none of my photos turned out clear. Just lots of leaves and the backs of kids heads!

I just want to say thank you to Lily, Tracy, Heather S, Drooler's Mommy and ALL their kids for allowing me to come along for such a fun day! Stay tuned for part 2.