don’t take anything seriously.

this past weekend was my mom’s birthday and mother’s day weekend. our family congregated in chicago and we drove up & down chicago(land) all weekend. it felt like we saw most of the state. Saturday, we all bought tickets to the planetarium. we got there at 2:30 or so, not realizing how much incredible stuff there is to see. we really only had time to see the two shows we bought as part of the package. welcome to the universe & planet nine, both of which, we’d both highly recommend. they were so informative & up to date. we felt like we were children on a field trip.

Sunday topped the weekend. we went to a northern suburb called wadsworth to take an epic house tour. the house is a giant 6-story pyramid built on a huge gravel pit. it has a moat and a separate 3-pyramid garage. they also have a cave with an exact replica of king tut’s tomb, a 50-foot statue of ramses, and a gift shop!

the house was built during the 80s to be a family home, so despite the fact that it is now a tourist attraction, the main floor is grandma’s house. the decor isn’t incredibly egypt-themed. the son, now somewhere around 50 years old, rents the space and gives tours of the grounds. the parents that built the house still live there, and we even got to meet the mother. the house has a wild story and the dedication that has gone into creating this world is unparalleled. thousands of people have flocked to this house for tours. groups pay to rent it for events. and now, the family sells bottled mineral water that comes through a spring in the ground in the middle of the bottom floor. supposedly, pyramids conduct energy and pull water out of the ground. this is exactly the case for this house, and the reason behind the moat. it is a homegrown wonder, so famous that the family has been invited to Egypt for royal trips.

it was a weekend filled with adventures and explorations large and small that took us to what felt like every corner of chicago and beyond. what we found upon full reflection of this time is you have to remember to live in awe of that which is around you. not everything or every day is going to be the 180° view of the universe & 6-story pyramids, but when it is remember that nothing is more important than soaking up the experience that you've been given. whether you’re enjoying something genuinely or ironically, be there & enjoy it. often nothing is ever the way you pictured it or expected it. i think a sense of childish wonder is a highly underrated and undervalued attitude, and something that i remember seeing in my mother from a very young age. we should all work to relearn to see the world through that inner child's lens, because with a sense of wonder comes a sense of gratitude.