Satori Smiles

I got these photos of Flat Satori’s travels when we were on vacation in Wisconsin, and haven’t had a chance to post them to the blog. Here they are now!

Abingdon, Virginia

Satori first travelled to Abingdon, Virginia, where she explored the Virginia Creeper Trail.

The Virginia Creeper Trail links present day mountain biking and hiking enthusiasts with nature and history buffs as they travel along an old Indian path through some of southwest Virginia’s finest countryside and highest, most gorgeous mountain scenery.

Rome, NY

Next, she stayed with a family in New York, and visited a beautiful sunflower field in Rome, NY.

The first shovelful of dirt was dug for the Erie Canal in Rome, and Satori stood next to a real canal boat.

Here she is “firing” a cannon at us in Fort Stanwix.

Here she is with “Flat Shannon” in the Officer’s Quarters along with her host family.

Pompey’s Pillar in Montana

Flat Satori then took a long trip even further west than we are as she visited Pompey’s Pillar in central Montana.

Pompey’s Pillar was visited by William Clark on his return trip from the west coast on this day 204 years ago (July 25, 1806).

While there he carved his name and the date in the rock.

Stay tuned for her next three adventures. We already have photos of her in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as well as just hearing from her host family that she arrived safely in Idaho Falls, Idaho!

I included this in our Flat Satori envelope, but thought I’d share here as well. Click the image to it see full-size and print out if you like.

The state flower is a photo we took a few weeks ago! I also learned the West Painted Turtle became a state symbol just a few years ago.

My favorite homeschooling forum started a Flat Stanley project and it launched this past week! What is Flat Stanley? The idea originates from a book series written in 1964 about a boy who got flattened one night from a bulletin board falling on him. He then travels the world by mailing himself in an envelope!

Our list will send Satori through over half the states of the United States and two other countries, with participants emailing us photos of Flat Satori in their various geographic locations! In turn, we’ll take photos of their Flat Stanleys in front of the Rocky Mountains, Colorado.

To make Flat Satori, I selected a recent photo of her entire body. I lucked out and found one right away. I printed it out on cardstock paper, cut it out carefully, then laminated it. Here she is!

For a size perspective, here’s Real Satori  holding Flat Satori.

We have to make them small enough to fit in an 8×11 manila envelope.

We’re sending it out to 50 families. Because I didn’t want to get bored with the same old photo, I used Photoshop to make a couple different versions. A few of her facing the other way, and one with a blue dress. Thank you “Replace Color” in Photoshop.

Here’s  our Flat Stanley book collection.

I wanted people to be able to hold Flat Satori up without covering her body, so I stuck a magnetic stick on the back. Never mind little orange mouth girl in the background…

During shipment, the stick can be moved up and stored perfectly behind Flat Satori.

Some people make their Flat Stanley children out of a template, which also sounds like a cool idea! But being an amateur photographer myself I thought it would be cute to see an actual Satori everywhere.