One of the many things Dave and Jan enjoy about their move to Cedar City, Utah is the variety in the weather with the changing of the seasons. Southern California’s mild climate allowed for outdoor activities almost every day of the year, but frequent winter temperatures in the 80’s hardly felt like winter (though, of course, there were cooler and sometimes rainy days along with the unseasonably warm days). Cedar City’s winter days are considerably cooler, so they call for different kinds of outdoor activities (or different kinds of clothing at least), because sometimes it snows!

Dog walking in snowy weather is a little more challenging than dog walking on a warm dry day. Jan’s dog Lola doesn’t object too much to walks in snowy weather, but her fur doesn’t take too kindly to accumulation of snow on her legs.

Some new friends, planning a move from California to Dave and Jan’s neighborhood when their house in Cedar City is completed, invited the Balsleys to join them at their rented condo at the Brian Head Ski Resort on March 12th, which turned out to be one of the snowier days in the Cedar City area this winter season. There was plenty of snow on the mountain, but Dave and Jan’s Subaru Legacy (with all wheel drive) proved sufficient for the drive up to Brian Head.

One of the winter activities Dave and Jan enjoy is cross country skiing. Though heavy snow prevented a cross country skiing adventure with their new friends the day they visited them in their condo at Brian Head, Dave and Jan drove to the area a week earlier to check out the cross country options and found them ideal for winter recreation.

The Apostle Paul reminded the Athenians, as he addressed them at the Areopagus on Mars Hill, that the Lord gave witness to His goodness by providing rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying their hearts with food and gladness (Acts 14:17) – and He is still doing the same today by His provision of snow in Cedar City!

On a cool and very windy day in Cedar City Dave and Jan decided it might be nice to take a drive to the south into southeast Nevada for a visit to The Valley of Fire State Park. It turned out to be a very good decision!

The state park included a number of rock formations of amazing beauty and variety.

A hike of around a mile at Rainbow Vista included an amazing array of colors – as the name implies.

The next hike of around a mile and a half loop is called White Domes because of the large domes of white rock in the area – but the white was definitely surrounded by a great deal of color as well.

The day’s final hike of around a mile round trip was the trail known as Fire Wave

After scanning the peaks in the park all day in search of some Long Horn Sheep, Dave and Jan were pleased to find some of them grazing peacefully near one of the park’s campgrounds!

Dave and Jan never fail to see the creative genius of the Lord as they continue exploring the beauty and variety which surrounds them in Southwest Utah.

Among the changes Dave and Jan are experiencing this year after moving from California to Utah is changing seasons – including snow. It has been over thirty five years since they lived in snow country (though there were occasional snowy days in Tucson), so they are enjoying the beauty of the snow.

Something Dave and Jan have looked forward to with the arrival of snow has been cross country skiing – something they first enjoyed while living in Gallup, New Mexico over forty years ago.  They were able to purchase skis, boots, and poles from someone who has a large collection of them, having taken large groups on cross country skiing outings over the years.  One of the many nice things about the location of their house is the existence of the city’s golf course right across the street – a great place to do some cross country skiing when there is enough snow in the city, as there was just recently.

When there isn’t enough snow in the city, or a change of scenery is desirable, there is plenty of snow up Highway 14 on the Markagunt Plateau.  So Dave and Jan headed up the mountain for some great scenery and large fields of snow suitable for cross country skiing.

The man who sold them the skis also grooms the cross country ski trails at Deer Hollow on the plateau where there are miles of trails with signs at every intersection in the system to help skiers know where they are and where they might want to go.

The Clarion Trail loop leads to a viewpoint which looks down on Navajo Lake – frozen and snow-covered during the winter season.

The family (including Stephen, Meagan, Ryan and Erin) enjoyed watching even a team of Huskies pulling a dog sled during one of their visits to Deer Hollow on the Markagunt Plateau around Christmas.  And, more recently, Caroleen Suzuki (who lived with Dave and Jan for six years after her arrival from Japan to pursue her college studies in Fullerton) tried sledding at Deer Hollow during her brief visit to Cedar City.

Dave and Jan are very grateful to the Lord for the variety of the seasons and the beauty of the snow during the winter months – and for the opportunities and the ability they still have, at their increasing ages, to get out and enjoy what God has done!

 

Dave and Jan enjoyed their first Christmas season in Cedar City with a welcome visit from son Stephen and family (Meagan, Ryan, and Erin). The city was decked out with Christmas lights in celebration of the season, so the family’s first evening included a drive through the downtown area and the Shakespeare garden area.

On Christmas Eve day the family headed up Cedar Mountain (Hwy. 14), stopping at Deer Hollow so Ryan and Erin could have a little fun playing in the snow.

The next leg of the journey took the family to the east entrance of Zion National Park.

On Christmas day a special breakfast of apple pancakes was followed by the traditional gift opening, then a drive up Cedar Mountain for some sledding on the snow before heading back home for Christmas dinner.

The day after Christmas included a brief stop at Cedar Breaks National Monument on the way for a visit to Bryce Canyon National Park – which Meagan decided was her favorite.

Cedar Breaks in Winter

With several people sick or out of town on Sunday (including Interim Pastor Fred and his wife Teri), it was nice to have Stephen’s family of four join the few who were able to attend morning worship at First Baptist Church in Cedar City.  Stephen’s family headed back to California at mid-day on Monday, just as a winter snow storm was starting to get serious, so the visit didn’t last too long, but the family managed to pack quite a bit into the few days Dave and Jan enjoyed having their “kids” and grandkids with them for Christmas 2020.

Dave and Jan spent many hours during the summer of 2020, with their move to Utah, developing the landscaping of their property. And they waited for weeks for local vendors to come through on arrangements they had made for a unique piece of furniture as well as fencing and a sprinkler system and the installation of a sod lawn in the back yard. But all their waiting has paid off and they are settled in their house and pleased with the finished product.

The last piece of furniture to arrive was an interesting unit for their “mud room” – the laundry room which is entered from the garage where, during winter months, cold-weather garments can be removed and muddy shoes either removed or cleaned up. The furniture piece was constructed by a vendor in the mountains east of Cedar City, using logs and finished wood from the Quaking Aspen trees which are so common in the area.

Landscaping the back yard first involved working to level the slope by adding tons of fill dirt and top soil and garden soil.

Plans were made for a back lawn using a border of red edging bricks, but the fencing contractor started on his project before the lawn arrived.

The installation of the fence got underway shortly before Dave and Jan traveled to Arizona and California for visits with friends and family and Dave’s participation (on Zoom) in the annual meeting of the UIM board.

When Dave and Jan got back from their trip they were happy to find that  the fencing and the sprinkler system and back lawn had been completed.  So they were able to finish up most of the landscaping they wanted for this year with the addition of a border around the lawn for shrubs and flowers where the sprinkler system will do the watering, the addition of red rock to cover soil which will get muddy in wet weather, and the planting of a number of fruit and shade trees around the border of the back yard.

Since they finished the work they intended to have done until the spring season comes around, with more flowering plants to be added, the Lord has added a few changes of His own – which Dave and Jan find pretty cool!

Quite a bit has changed in Dave and Jan’s lives in the last six months, and they are thankful to the Lord on Thanksgiving Day of the unusual year which 2020 has been for the changes they are enjoying after their return to “high country” following the thirty five years which they spent in Arizona and Southern California.

Dave and Jan enjoyed a visit to Huron, South Dakota where their daughter Alissa, her husband Dr. Andrew Crandall (pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Huron), and their four boys have lived for the past ten years or more. The four grandsons are keeping their parents busy – as young boys do! They are growing normally – all attending the same school (James Valley Christian School).

At ten years of age Levi, the oldest, is showing some interest in sports.  We watched several football games together, and he took his interest to the park where he played catch with a football with his father.

Levi’s younger brother, Elijah (8), was wearing the facial markings of a football player as well, but he was busy playing on playground equipment patterned after a rocket in the city park.

Silas, who had just turned 6, enjoyed playing with a new toy drone (along with his brothers) which he received as a birthday present from his grandparents.

And Ephraim, the youngest of the brothers (4), decided to clarify his vision with the addition of some glasses belonging to Mr. Potato Head!

Among several meals enjoyed with the family was the Sunday evening meal featuring eggs (with cheese) and pancakes which Andrew and Alissa worked together to prepare in the family’s kitchen.

The two-and-a-half day drive each way took Dave and Jan through many miles of interesting scenery – through miles of colorful and interesting rock formations in Utah, over the Rocky Mountains to Denver in Colorado, and through the Sand Hills of northwestern Nebraska.  On the drive home they stopped to view the interesting geology of the Badlands National Park in Southwest South Dakota.  Both the sharply eroded buttes and pinnacles and the herds of long-horned sheep were very interesting to observe.

How nice to have the time and resources and freedom – in spite of the many inconveniences of the Covid-19 Pandemic – to enjoy the blessings of family as well as the amazing beauty and variety of our nation!

 

Dave and Jan headed east past Bryce Canyon National Park to visit Mossy Cave and Kodachrome Basin State Park. Arriving at Mossy Cave they found the parking lot blocked off because of road work in the area. But there was plenty to see at Kodachrome Basin State Park, so a side trip to Mossy Cave would have kept them from exploring the park as fully as they wished.

Kodachrome Basin is filled with fascinating and colorful geological features.  The red rock walls and cliffs are already beautiful in and of themselves.

And park facilities are well-planned and well-maintained – including restroom facilities (with showers) and picnic and camp grounds.

The half-mile Kodachrome Nature Trail provides excellent views of some of the spectacular scenery in the park.

The park’s most famous geological features, seventy towering sandstone chimneys called Hoodoos, are red and multi-colored rock columns which rise from six to one hundred seventy feet in height above the valley floor or from the sandstone cliffs.

A hike up Angel’s Palace Trail provided expansive views of the basin below, as well as additional Hoodoos.

 A park poster stated that Kodachrome Basin State Park is one of the world’s best locations for spectacular views of the night skies – good reason for a future camping stay at the park with its views of not only fascinating geology on earth but the amazing universe above our planet.  As the psalmist put it (Psalm 8:1):  “O LORD, our Lord,  How majestic is Your name in all the earth, Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens!”

One of the annual celebrations in Cedar City is the Livestock and Heritage Festival which occurs near the end of October. The festival is a celebration of the ranching and farming heritage of the region – marked by a parade through the middle of town on Main Street, followed by a variety of demonstrations and vendors’ booths at the Cross Hollows Event Center. For Dave and Jan this was their first exposure to the festival – beginning for them with a six-block walk to Main Street through beautiful Veterans’ Park.

Patriotism is strong in Cedar City, so it was refreshing to see the arrival of the nation’s flag recognized by salutes and hands over hearts as it passed down the parade route through town.

The city was decorated for the festival with bales of hay, scare crows attached to light poles, and plywood sheep decorated by various businesses around town as a fund-raiser in recognition of the fact that hundreds of sheep would be parading through town toward the end of the parade.

The parade included a number of the mobile housing units which shepherds occupy throughout the warmer months when their flocks are grazing up in the mountains above Cedar City at around 10,000 ft. elevation.

Some musical cowboys shared their musical talents as they sang of thousands of sheep parading through town for the festival, and a group of young people demonstrated their square dancing skills as they passed.

There were many classic cars and tractors in the parade, along with some large farming equipment – including an interesting steam unit which dampens downed hay in a dry climate so it will bale correctly – and baling hay is serious business to support the livestock raised throughout the area.

The arrival of the sheep is always a highlight of the Heritage Festival.

At the Cross Hollows Event Center there were tractor pulls (to see whose tractor could pull an increasing amount of weight the farthest) and draft horse pulls (to see whose team of beautiful and hefty Belgian horses could pull a weighted wagon the fastest.

It was a fun, full day of heritage celebration – one of the many interesting features of the Cedar City area which Dave and Jan are enjoying very much – thankful for the Lord’s leading to their new “Life Elevated” location!

The sign in front of First Baptist Church in Cedar City, where Dave and Jan attend, featured the message not long ago “If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans!” So they were planning to go to Gilbert, Arizona so Dave could participate in the annual meeting of the board of directors’ for UIM (United Indian Mission) International. They made plans to visit some special friends in Arizona, Bill and LaVeta Sparks in Prescott and Lawrence and Diana Ray in Vail (southeast of Tucson). Because of the Corona Virus, board and administration members from Canada and Mexico were going to participate via Zoom, but with Zoom also an option for US board and administration members, not many decided to attend in person, so the board format was switched to Zoom only the week before the meeting. With the anticipated Thursday evening dinner and meeting cancelled, and the board meeting via Zoom on Friday, Dave and Jan decided to plan a side trip to Southern California to visit Stephen and family. They took a route they had not traveled before, enjoying many miles of the sights in the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument along the way.

In California, following the board meeting on Friday, it was time to pay a visit to the Burbank Balsleys.  Ryan and Erin were perhaps as happy to see Lola as they were to see Grandpa Dave and Grandma Jan.

At six years of age and first grade in his studies (which his mother, Meagan, is supervising at home on the computer), Ryan is getting to be quite a bright young man.

A highlight of Dave and Jan’s visit was the launching of Ryan’s rocket in a nearby park where the family enjoyed three successful launches, taking the rocket around three hundred feet into the air.

Erin enjoyed the opportunity to take Lola for a walk in the park.

Rocket launching was followed by lunch from El Pollo Loco.

With Halloween approaching the grandkids enjoyed carving pumpkins.

With a little help from Stephen, Ryan created a pumpkin masterpiece.

Erin showed her skills with blocks as a tower builder.

As Solomon put it in Proverbs 16:9, “The mind of man plans his way, But the Lord directs His steps.” Dave and Jan were very happy to have the Lord alter their way with an enjoyable visit with special friends and family as He directed their steps on their trip to Arizona and (surprise!) California.