A spa day for Vanessa and Jennifer & Barry and Elinor arrive in Agadir

What a fun day we had today! Jason was out the door by 6a.m. and headed out to the job site. The kids enjoyed playing and messing around, not having to do any school work. They love Saturdays over here! Vanessa and I got all ready and Jason got back at 10:45. He took us over to a spa called L'Argon. It was set in the middle of a very old looking part of Agadir and I was a little nervous about going in, but there were a lot of taxi's and people coming in and out, so we decided to check it out. Jason had reserved a massage for both Vanessa and I along with a pedicure and manicure. When we walked in...Vanessa started freaking out. She did not want to have a massage. I told her that she didn't have to, so I kept my appointment and canceled hers. They then led us upstairs. One woman sat Vanessa down and got her feet soaking and another woman grabbed her hand and started working on her fingernails. It was quite a process and Vanessa was loving it. It was just then that I realized that I had forgotten my camera. I knew Jason had headed over to the Artisan Souk to get the things made that have everyone's names in Arabic on them, so I hoped he was still fairly close. I called and asked him if he had his camera and asked if he would bring it to us. He, very kindly, said yes he would bring it right over. I was excited to take pictures of Vanessa getting everything done. However, just then, they came and got me to take me up for the massage. We were on the 2nd level and the massage part was on the 3rd level.

I was led upstairs by a beautiful black woman. She had gorgeous eyes and a beautiful smile. As we were about to go up, down came two Caucasian men--I'm assuming French, because they were speaking French, but they could have been from anywhere, because so many people from everywhere speak French here. Anyway, they were coming down the stairs and they smiled and said something to the woman taking me upstairs. She nodded her head at them, but as soon as they passed, she looked at me and made a circle motion by the side of the head (like she was saying they were cuckoo), and started laughing and whispering in French. I started giggling--I love it how you can communicate so easily with another person and know just what they are saying and not even understand a syllable of what they are saying with the language they are speaking. As we went upstairs, the noises got less and less and it was lit only by Moroccan candles. We went back to one of the massage rooms; the walls were red and beautiful Moroccan draperies (we had seen ones like it made at the Artisan Souk) were hanging all around to soften the walls. The massage table was covered with white towels and red rose petals were arranged in swirling patterns across towels. The lighting included candles and a beautifully dimmed chandelier. The most peaceful part to me, was the American music that was playing softly in the background. The massage was really great. I had anticipated getting sick from it and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was the most relaxing thing I have done in years. (I had had a massage in Logan, while I was pregnant with Vanessa and got so sick from it, that I've never had another) This was a completely different experience. My muscles felt so good afterwards and that lasted all day. It was something I really enjoyed.

During the massage, Jason called and asked if I had left the key to the apartment in the car. I felt so bad, it was here in my purse. The massage lady took it downstairs for me. I later found out that Jason had come and sent Mitchell in to get the key--they would not allow him to come up and disturb me, and they finally realized that the key was with Vanessa. Jason had quite the time with the boys. After they had come the first time, to bring us the camera, he went and got them ice cream and Sprite drinks. For some unknown reason, to the common sense world, Reggie and Will shook their cans of pop and then opened them in the back seat. They exploded all over the car and Jason had to go to the car wash and get the entire car cleaned. After the cleaning, they got all the way back to the apartment, realized that the key was back at L'Argon and had come back to get the key. What a rat race. Meanwhile, I was totally relaxed, getting completely pampered.

I went down to the second level and there was Vanessa grinning her head off. Her finger and toe nails looked so nice and one hour later, mine looked much better too! The girls working on my nails kept commenting on how "fragile" my skin was because she kept making me bleed. Being tortured like this was a little painful, but the end result was worth it!

I better speed things up...We came home and got ready then left for the airport at exactly the time that Barry and Elinor's plane should have been arriving at the airport. Due to the fact that our apartment is about 30 minutes from the airport, this was a bad thing. However, their plane was late, customs and the passport checkpoint was long, so we got there just as they were able to see us! I was so thrilled to see family that I burst into tears. After hugs and lugging all their suitcases out to the car, we decided that we didn't want to be separated and chose to ride together to the hotel, instead of separating into our car and a taxi. That meant that Jason, Mitchell and Elinor sat in the front bucket seats (the car is a stick shift); Barry, Jennifer, Vanessa, Reggie, Robby and Will were all in the backseat, and their 5 or 6 suitcases were fit with puzzle like precision, into the trunk. We received several humors stares from cars that we passed. We have become truly Moroccan.

Barry and Elinor were amazed how "tropical" Agadir looks. The flowers are really blooming right now and everything is quite green.

I'll finish later, but here are the highlights
--got Barry and Elinor checked into their hotel.
--ate at McDonald's and were attacked by every poor child on the beach for money
--went and saw our apartment
--Jason took them back to their hotel, we watched a movie and went to bed late!