Jensen Family Reunion

Last Friday evening Glen and I hosted a reunion for the Jensen Family.

The family gathered at Murray Park just like they used to do most summers when I first met them all.

I attended my first Jensen Family Reunion just a few days after my first son, Eric, was born.  We were there a year later but now the newborn was one year old.  He is wearing the red pants in the middle.  Glen's mother had made matching red gingham shirts and dresses for all of her grands that year.

Glen and his Aunt Alice decided a couple of months ago that we needed to meet together to play and have fun, not just at funerals.

It was a great group in Ramada 3 next to the elementary school, just like it used to be. There were over 70 of them.

We had announced ahead of time that there would be time for a talent show.

The bloodline Jensens are a pretty quiet, shy kind of people.

But our granddaughter and her new cousin friend, Sarah, sang "I am a Child of God" for the group.

I think that Glen's three aunts enjoyed it.  They are Alice, Linda, and Julienne.  Julienne's twin, Joanne, is also still living but was unable to travel down from Idaho.

Once through their song they invited everyone joined in for the second time.

 

My husband, Glen, is blood related but his aunts tell him he has mostly Baker genes.  That means he has never met a stranger, loves to tell stories, and laughs often - out loud. 

His grand sons and he had been practicing their laughing in the car.  Their talent was to teach the Jensen clan how to laugh.

Here are Jordan and Elma's two newest great grand daughters, Opal and Sydney.

They enjoyed checking each other out.

Both so cute and just two months apart in age.  Jordan used to always have a baby in his arms.  I know he would have scooped these two right up.

Finally, it was time for Bingo.

Just look at that prize table.  Everyone brought prizes to share. And desserts!

Guess who won the first prize?  Why the oldest one there, Aunt Julienne.

Aunt Linda has been super grandma since the death of her lovely daughter last Fall.  She has been caring for her four children during the work week.  She was the youngest of the Jensen clan of 11 children.  She continues to sweetly serve family.

A picture shared from a past reunion of Jordan and his sisters, Dorthea, Gloria, Nina, Julienne, Alice, Joanne, and Linda. At this reunion all were represented except for Nina.  Siblings missing from this picture are Hazel, Clive, and Aral.

Three generations of Jensen men, Glen, Nathan, and Oscar.

Glen's sister Peggy was back in Utah after a winter in Florida and brought all of her Utah children to the reunion.

The aunts had brought memorabilia to share.  This picture of Jordan as the boy in the middle looks like Glen as a boy. 

Here is the father of them all, George Jenson, at sheep camp where Dorthea or Dot had come for a visit.  George herded sheep for the Moons in the Uintas.  He went by Jenson.  The children tell two different stories about why they were Jensens instead.  The girls say that someone put Jensen on their birth certificates.  Aral's and Jordan's boys were told by their fathers that when they entered the military during WWII, that the mean lady put their last name down as Jensen and they were to shy to correct her.

There was also a published journal of Darius Salem Clement who was Della Clement Jenson's, wife of George, grandfather.  I'm including a timeline from this book and am going to order myself a copy.  You see, I am also related to this clan and not by marriage.  Darius was the son of Betsy Foote Clement and nephew of Warren Foote.  I am descended through Warren.  I love that life is like that!

Jesse Warren Clement, son of Darius and father of Della.  I'm pretty sure his middle name came from his great uncle Warren.