Charmayne inquired about some of my other fall memories. I may be the only one who remembers these things ...
Staging a haunted house in the boys room in Missouri. If I remember correctly, I hid under the crib (?) and smeared ketchup on people legs as they walked by. Doug and I had a record player, and we had one of those flimsy, plastic spooky music records. Doug and Rich were also strategically located around the room for scaring. We invited our neighbor friends to tour it. We tried it again in my room in our new house on Gridley Avenue many years later. One of those boys hid in the upper cupboard in my room and threw something big out that made a big banging noise. That's all I remember.
Creating Pilgrim centerpieces. One Sunday afternoon in the old house on Larkin Road, I went into rare big sister-gather-the-troops-for-fun mode and had Doug and Rich help me make Thanksgiving centerpieces. We used empty glass soda bottles (really aging myself here) to wrap Pilgrims we had colored and cut out around. I can still remember how proud I was of our "lovely" Pilgrim centerpieces and most especially felt good about giving Mom and Dad a break from our fighting and their having to entertain us.
Harvesting the walnuts. Do you remember the dreadful year that the orchard could not be machine harvested and we got to try and pick up as many walnuts as we could by hand? I did not appreciate at the time how difficult that must have been on Mom. I can remember her encouraging us and rewarding us with tootsie rolls for every bucket we filled up with walnuts.
The excitement of earning family electronics by helping with the harvest. I was SO excited when we got our disc player! Great memories of great classics like Star Wars and Mom's favorite funny movie with Barbara Streisand that I suddenly can't remember the title.
Course there's also the less than fabulous memory of returning home one Halloween and having Dad say, "The Bishop called me wanting to know why my daughter was at his home dressed like a prostitute." Now, let me explain--Krista had the fabulous idea of dressing up as punk rockers for Halloween one year when we were in high school. I guess we overdid it a bit. In my great naivete, we drove over to Josh's house to say howdy. I don't even think he was home, but Bishop Cook certainly was. I don't even think we went any where else. I was MORTIFIED when Dad told me that. Imagine my reaction when my 12 year old announced Saturday that instead of wearing her vampire outfit (which I might add--I had made four separate trips and purchases to get just the right vampire teeth) she was going to dress up as a Punk Rocker and appeared in zebra tights and a very short, black sheer swim suit cover up skirt (that came with her swim suit). Let's just suffice it to say that she did not take the outfit rejection well and I ended up taking her friend trick or treating without her. (Please remember to enjoy these years of sweet little girls in lovely princess gowns. They pass quickly.)
The Siblings together again minus Sam and Arnold. Don't you love Mom's earrings? Her team took second place in the Minute to Win It games.
Mr. Friendly jumped right in and joined his cousins in their card games. Grant is being hilarious.
Being the tail end of the 9, Sylvia and Art's kids and Kevin made up the bulk of the games. One of the highlights of the reunion for me was playing volleyball with Randy, Kenny, Stephanie, Jon Michael, Ammon, and Grant. They were very fun, encouraging, good sports and impressive athletes. My competitive spirit dovetailed nicely with theirs. 
Steve and Rachel found plenty of ways to entertain themselves. All four Jensens were divided into various Minute to Win It teams. Steve's team did the best. He and Marv bonded over their marshmallow and toothpick structure plans despite the fact that these plans were thwarted by another team member.
