Nauvoo: Day 1

We started the day with a 45 minute wagon ride. There are about 10-12 teams of horses in Nauvoo. They are Percherons and Belgians. Teamsters (senior missionaries who have experience driving teams of horses) drive the wagon and also give parts of the wagon tour. It was a great overview of all the buildings and stories from old Nauvoo.  Baby S enjoyed the ride so much that he fell alseep.

 The kids also sat in a covered wagon model outside the visitors center.

Then we went to the brickyard where Elder Grandpa was on duty that day.  He told us how the pioneers made bricks and about the Nauvoo clay pit. The brick buildings in town were made from that clay and which is so are the souvenir bricks that they give out today.

The Pioneer Pastimes exhibit is the perfect place for kids to play and learn about pioneer life.  They have a miniature cabin and a miniature school house. They have dress up clothes for all sizes and ages.

 We played with the various kinds of toys and games that the pioneer children might have used. Even in the age of electronics, they were mesmerized by wooden tops, wooden animal blocks, stilts, climbing jacks, and Jacob's ladders.

Don't we look like a regular pioneer family?