The Adventures of Flat Asha

My niece Asha, who lives in Mapleton Utah is in the 2nd grade and is learning about geography. They read a book called Flat Stanley, about a boy who was smashed by a bulletin board or something-I know it sounds gruesome, but apparently other than him being smashed flat, he was otherwise unharmed-you can let out your sigh of relief now. Anywho-what the class then did is made themselves flat-not by smashing themselves with bulletin boards, but just by drawing a picture of themselves. Then they were supposed to send their flattened selves to some exotic or far off locale where a friend or family lives to have a little visit and see what that part of the world is like. (You may remember us doing this a couple of years ago for her older brother). Well as you may have guessed sweet little Asha chose us as Flat Asha's host family and we got to take her around and show her the sites, and even dress her in our authentic cultural clothing...ie. raincoat, rainboots, and of course to complete the outfit-matching umbrella.

These are the adventures we took her on, this last weekend...First we stopped off in Depoe Bay-Whale Watching Capital and also the home of the Worlds Smallest Harbor. We took Flat Asha's pictures in front of the signs, in front of the whale statue and in front of the boats in the harbor. She loved it , even when she got splashed a little from the huge waves crashing against the wall while she was looking for whales.Next we took Flat Asha to the beach, it was a little chilly but that didn't seem to bother her, she still convinced us to bury her in the sand and help her write her name in the mountain with a stick, she loved playing with her not so flat cousins and watched with sheer delight as they ran from the waves and built mini sand castles.

On Sunday we took Flat Asha to Bonneville Dam to see the big sturgeon and other fish, she was a little disappointed that the salmon weren't climbing the ladders to get back to the ocean at this time of year, but she still signed the guest register and had her picture taken by the fake salmon and pretended to look terrified that she was about to be eaten-that Flat Asha, such a crack up!After the Dam we stopped at Multnomah Falls and took her picture in front of the sign and the falls, Flat Asha at that point was getting a little upset by all the cold and rain, so we didn't stay long.At the end of our weekend we went to the End of the Oregon Trail site, if you look closely you can see Flat Asha on the sign waving to you all. She had so much fun in Oregon, and we were all sad to see her go this afternoon back to Utah.Flat Asha-you can come back and visit your host family anytime! We would love to see the 3 dimensional you here in Oregon, but understand that your mom and dad are big poo's for not bringing you out-we love em anyway! Love ya!