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    I have a fondness for fondue dinners.  It all started back when my husband was stationed in Germany and we went to a church party at a Major's home, who was a member or our congregation.  They had a really nice quarters, and they hosted this fondue party.  It was so much fun.  There were several kinds of fondue, a large assortment of things to dip, plus other appetizers.  We all walked around the table multiple times just talking and eating as we stood for a while, and then filling our plates and talking and enjoying ourselves even more.  That party was the perfect mix of food and people.  I have tried to replicate it, but haven't really come close.  But, my love of fondue, partly because of my memory of that party, has not waned.  
    Now that school is back in for many, a special fun dinner is just the ticket for a family to de-stress and just enjoy some time together. Maybe you can create a long lasting memory of your own.  Fondue is fun with a lot of people enjoying it, and also just for 2 or 3!  Maddy is vegan, so she won't be eating the cheese and chocolate fondues with my husband and I tonight, but she can join in with many of the dippers and use some vegan dressings as a dip.  There are always options. 
     For a family get together, a great idea is to have a larger variety of fondues and assign lots of things to dip.  I like to give everyone a little cup to hold their fondue in on their plate, instead of them doing multiple dippings back into the pot.  That protects everyone from double dippers! If you don't have enough fondue forks, you can use skewers or just regular forks.  

    I know that the word "fondue" might sound intimidating, but it means "melted" and virtually everything goes! You can use many different kinds of cheese, hot oil for cooking thin cuts of meat right in the pot, savory sauces, like a marinara.  For dessert, chocolate is always a favorite, but you can do caramel or marshmallow and for dippers you are only limited by your imagination. 

    I am sharing 2 recipes with you today.  One is a main course or even an appetizer. The other is a dessert.  
     First, a goat cheese fondue that you will love! 

Goat Cheese Fondue

    For dipping I simply used things I already had on hand, pan grilled chicken chunks, zucchini, carrots, french bread.  You could also use crackers, peppers and any veggies you would like. 

    For dessert, Chocolate Fondue! This recipe whips up in no time. 

​Simple And Delicious Chocolate Fondue

    If you don't already have a fondue pot, I am sharing some links to some here.  Do you have any fondue memories?  How about recipes or favorite things to dip?  Share with us in the comments! 

This post contains affiliate links. I will be compensated for purchased made through those links at no additional cost to you. All views expressed are my own. Thank you for your support!

    This will be edition one of our trip from Phoenix, AZ to Casper, WY, and back again. Oh the places we saw!  I have debated how to best tell you about our trip in a way that would be of benefit to you.  We took 2 weeks to travel, visit and see the sites.  But, many of the places we went are great destinations to go see for just a fun day outing or weekend trip, depending on your place of departure or your mode of travel.  Some are places you may never have heard about, but you won't be disappointed if you go.

    To begin, the main reason we planned this trip was because my granddaughter, Jayda, was getting baptized.  This is a big event in her life and we wanted to be there for it.  The timing was pretty busy for her family because my son had just started a new job in a town about 4.5 hours away from Casper.  His wife deserves a giant shout-out for her strength and ability to get their home all packed up by herself, take care of their 5 children and prepare for this baptism with company (lots of family) coming all at the same time.  She is an amazing woman. 

• There is my cute little Jayda all ready to be baptized!
• Her Daddy is in the blue shirt getting ready to go to work.  It makes me happy to see him switch from lawyer job to being the Dad who is worthy and able to baptize his daughter.
• She is with cousins and siblings and her mommy.  I love the photo where she is looking up at her Dad.
• If you want to know more about our beliefs about baptism, you can click this link. 

Sites to Visit Around Casper, WY

As you can see, we did a lot and had so much fun!  I am going to make a list and some highlights of the sites we saw in Wyoming.

Ayers Natural Bridge:  Near the city of Douglas, and less than an hour from Casper, this is a beautiful park nestled in a red rock canyon.  It has camping areas and a playground and the bridge and water are beautiful.  Our grandchildren played in the pool right under the bridge.  The best part is, this beautiful park is totally free to use!  Another fun thing is that the caretakers have made the park even more magical by adding little fairy houses and animals on the trees of the park.  My granddaughter was captivated.

Martin's Cove:  This is one of 3 historical sites very close to each other along the road between Casper and Kemmerer.   This site commemorates the Martin Handcart Company, one of the pioneer groups from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, better known as Mormon Pioneers.  The Martin Company left too late in the season and as a result lost many of its members to disease, cold and starvation. In Martin's Cove, a rescue party was able to meet them and help save the remaining members of the company.  One of my favorite stories from that rescue was of 3- 18 year old boys who carried the weak pioneers across the freezing Sweetwater River multiple times to safety. 
    At Martin's Cove, you can pull handcarts around a short interpretive walk, or borrow one for a longer trek of your own.  We did that with our grandkids, took a picnic in our handcart and hiked about 4.5 miles.  It was a great day, the kids were troopers and it was amazing to remember what those brave pioneers must have gone through.  
*WARNING:  Wear mosquito repellent! 

Devil's Gate:  The Sweetwater River flows through this natural gorge.  The Pioneers often traveled through this spot into the Martin's Cove area.  Again, wear repellent! 

Independence Rock:  I found out this giant rock with so many pioneer names carved on it was so named because the pioneers had to reach it by Independence Day to be able to have safe travel before winter hit.  Unfortunately for the Martin and Willie Handcart companies, they didn't arrive there until November! 
   My husband climbed up to the top of the rock.  I stayed below to take his picture.  Yeah, that's why.

Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area: This beautiful red rock area along the Green River is magnificent!  There is boating, hiking and camping available. 

Have you been to any of these places?  My husband and I really enjoyed Wyoming, It 

We didn't want to put a lot of miles on our own cars for this trip, so we rented from Enterprise. We rented a Nissan Rogue that was extremely roomy and got such terrific gas mileage! It was really nice.

This post contains affiliate links. I will be compensated for purchased made through those links at no additional cost to you. All views expressed are my own. Thank you for your support!

    My husband and I just got home last night from our vacation to Wyoming to visit our oldest son's family!  We had so much fun and I can't wait to tell you about everything we did.  But, that is going to take a lot of picture editing and writing, so you are going to have to wait until next week.  You can get a few hints from the photos above about the fun time that we had.  
    In the meantime, I thought I would share with you some of the games that we played with our grandchildren while we were there.  I don't know if you have noticed, but kids love having adults play board games with them and it is always more fun if they are games that the adults love as well as the kids do.  Our grandchildren asked us to play with them as soon as we got there and as a game lover myself, I was game to learn what their current favorites are.  I think that I am going to have to get a couple of these for myself now! What made me the happiest was seeing that my son and daughter-in-law took the time to play with their kids and build those lasting memories and relationships.  

     Some of these games were not only fun, but educational as well.  I am including links to them in case you feel like purchasing them. 

Qwirkle:

    This game is like an updated form of Dominos.  In this case players match colors and shapes and try to make Qwirkles (6 in a set) to win!  My 4 year old grandson teamed up with me and he was learning his shapes, colors, counting and pattern making as we played.  It was also a great exercise in problem solving and cognitive thinking. 

Googly Eyes:

    Googly Eyes is much like a version of Pictionary except the person drawing the pictures wears vision altering glasses, which makes drawing much more difficult and also hilarious! My granddaughter, Shyanne, and I were a dream team, until she threw me over for her Aunt Lindsey! Ha ha ha.  We had so much fun.

   Ticket to Ride Europe:

    You are probably familiar with Ticket to Ride.  There are many versions of this fun game.  My son's family recently got this Europe version and I was amazed at how quickly the older 3 kids have mastered it. I love how this game teaches geography, problem solving, planning ahead, math skills for scoring and patience! We all love Ticket to Ride, no matter what version you play. 

    There is no reason to wait for a family game night to play these games, or any board game for that matter.  Now that school is starting for everyone, it is more important than ever to make the time to spend quality time with your kids, giving them time to connect with you and have some fun.  School can be stressful and games like these can help them relax while they are still learning without knowing it.  What board games are fun for your entire family?  I'd love to know. 

For other game ideas, here are a few of our past recommendations: 

                                                                                         Favorite Party Games