We took a quick trip to Las Vegas last week to celebrate daughter Toni‘s 34th birthday.

Her husband, Jason, entertained and drove us around the city. Our grandson, Camden, is now 2-1/2. To look at him, you’d never know that two years ago, he had his little heart rebuilt in a five-hour surgery.

Rather than walk, he runs everywhere he goes. He is really into spaceships and rockets. In fact, as I walked into the living room of their home upon our arrival, he said his first full sentence to me. He said, “Papa, I have a space ship.”

He has one tall rocket made of blocks and a small metal model of the space shuttle. He had numerous lift offs throughout the five days we were there. I’d walk into the room to hear him say, “Three, two, one, blastoff.”

You know, I never got tired of hearing him say that.

As I said, Jason drove us around to the different areas of metro Las Vegas. He drove us to the Lake Las Vegas development on the far east to Summerlin on the west. Lake Las Vegas was interesting because it became a virtual ghost town after the Recession took hold. There are several new subdivisions of homes going up now.

We had lunch in a great Mexican restaurant on a hillside in Henderson called Lindo Michoacan. The hostess sat us by the large glass window from where we had a great overview of the entire metro area. You could see the buildings on the Strip and the airport. from there.

Toni is now employed by Jimmy Choos, a high–end shoe store located at Crystals at City Center, next to the Aria Hotel.

She is doing quite well there. It seems like yesterday when she was working as an assistant manager at the local Mc Donald’s and as a department manager at the local Target when it opened.

The city was all abuzz with three different topics dominating the news: the possible move of the Oakland Raiders NFL franchise moving to Vegas and where they would play, concern over the sale of the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) and the possible move of its headquarters out of Vegas and the Pokemon-Go phenomenon.

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We’re beginning a new series this week. During the recent Vision Fountain Hills community workshop, there were three key areas that should be considered as top priority for the community to put it in a growth mode once again.

The series covers the priorities and what is being done to reach the goals of the study. The first installment is on the schools, written by Editor Ryan Winslett.

It makes for interesting reading.

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The annual Italian Dinner Fund-raiser for the River of Time Museum is less than a month away and items are still being accepted for the silent and live auctions.

Items may be dropped off during regular summer hours for the museum. They are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays.

Dinner tickets are available for purchase at the museum, Gridleys, Sami Fine Jewelry and The Times office.

Cost is $15 each or two for $25. Children 10 and under are $5 each