Characteristics: Plants in this family are typically climbing or sprawling vines. The prickly stems have tendrils and alternate, palmate leaves. Blossoms have a five-lobed calyx and five-lobed, radial flowers.
The fruits of cucurbits (cantaloupe, watermelon, cucumber, squash, pumpkins, and melons) have a hard or leathery rind, fleshy pulp, and numerous flattened seeds. These fruits are technically berries (the most common type of simple fleshy fruit; one in which the entire ovary wall ripens into an edible pericarp. The seeds are embedded in the common flesh of the ovary) but are perhaps better known as 'pepos' (a large many-seeded berry, usually with a hard epicarp, such as melons and cucumbers.)
Pumpkins
Your decorative pumpkin is probably Cucurbita pepo. Pumpkins are members of the Squash family (Cucurbitaceae) which also includes cucumbers, melons, and gourds, all botanically known as pepos, which in turn are actually modified berries,. The members of this family typically have thick, leathery to hard walls and typically contain several to hundreds of seeds. Pumpkins are native to North America; it is thought that Mexico was the first country to cultivate them, mainly for the seeds (pepitas).
The name pumpkin comes from Greek "pepon", a large melon. "Pepon" turned into "pompon" in French, then to "pumpion" in English. American colonists changed "pumpion" into "pumpkin."
The only members of Cucurbitaceae to be found in El Dorado County are the wild cucumbers: genus Marah. I believe these can be found more in riparian areas like the Dave Moore Nature Trail in Coloma. In Sacramento, if you walk or ride along the American River Bike Trail you can find wild cucumbers (in season) draping over the various plants along the trail.
For interesting information on the origins of names like "squash' and 'cucumber', check this.