Nauvoo Day 2

Seery playing with a traditional Pioneer doll

All of us at the Brickyard

The Heber C. Kimball Home

Driving a wagon

The Scovil Bakery

Aidan making rope

Dads like to dress up too!

The kids trying to have a sheep race

Isn't Seery a cute pioneer?

Brigham Young's Home

David's parents with us outside the Heber C. Kimball Home

Seery pretending to be in school


Seery playing house. She set the table really well.

Aidan conducting the Nauvoo Brass Band

All of us in The Pioneer Pastime Area



On the morning of Day 2 Aidan walked down to a bakery with his grandpa to get us all some breakfast. Then we were off to tour again. We first went to the Brickyard and learned that it took 6 weeks to make several thousand bricks. Nauvoo had appox. 125 brick homes, which were really expensive to build and a rare thing in the West at that time. When the pioneers left most of those homes hadn't even sold. The Cultural Hall, a 3 story building auctioned years later for a mere $4.50. We then went to the Family Living Center where we learned how to make bread in a bustle oven, which by the way is the BEST bread I have ever tasted. We learned how pioneers made candles, pottery, barrels-- which takes an 8 year apprenticeship to become a Cooper like Joseph Smith Sr., and how to make your own rope. Aidan was a participant in making the rope by turning the wheel which twists plant fibers. We learned how the Scovil Bakery made their goods in a bustle oven and were able to each sample a gingerbread cookie. We walked through the beautiful Heber C. Kimball home, one of the only homes that sold when the Pioneers had to leave Nauvoo. We walked through Brigham Young's Home where presiding councils of the church met. The Cultural Hall fully restored in the mid Eighties is a stunning 3 story building where plays, dances, wedding receptions, and other functions were held. This building also contains many quilts from around the world, from different time periods. Although, out of everything we saw and did Nauvoo, I think Aidan and Seery really enjoyed the Pioneer Pastime Outdoor area the most. The kids were able to dress up as pioneers, and David it did too. The had a log cabin set up as a school house for kids to play in and the other cabin was a home to play house in. There were traditional 19th century games to play and stilts to walk with. We were entertained by the Nauvoo Brass Band, Aidan pretended to be their conductor while he listened to the music. We really enjoyed feeling the peace the town has to offer, the gorgeous scenery, and of course all the education we received from the missionaries who serve there to enlighten us in all aspect of how life truly was in the mid 1800's for the pioneers. Most of all we walked away with complete respect and gratitude for all the pioneers did to transform the swap land into a town and then walk away and leave it all behind, some only having lived in their newly finished homes for 6 weeks.