Congratulations Jaden!

Today was another big milestone day for our family.

Our son Jaden graduated from high school!

It’s a day full of smiles all around.

Smiles of happiness for this achievement. And smiles of happiness for what’s to come.

Because Jaden isn’t sitting still.

He’s off to see the world.

The first stop on his next grand adventure is China!

He’s heading out in a couple days for 3 weeks in China with a group from high school. Thanks to a grant from a university in China, the Chinese teacher at the high school has arranged an amazing trip for about 35 students. They’ll start in Beijing and end in Hong Kong with a lot of wonderful experiences in between.

Then a couple months later he’ll head to Singapore and Malaysia as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for 2 years.

Once again, we’re facing changing family dynamics as another child ventures out in the world to do good.

It’s such an exciting time!

We’re definitely going to miss having Jaden and his lively personality grace our home on a constant basis. But we’re also so excited to watch him continue to grow and develop.

My wife and I consider ourselves very blessed to have Jaden in our family. He’s been a joy to raise and we can just hope we’ve taught him well as he opens the door to this next chapter in his life.

During these life-milestone moments, it’s only natural to reflect on the past. We pull out old photos and reminisce.

And along those lines, I thought it would be fun to look back on the unique way we’ve happened to capture his growth over the last 7 years — his board game reviews.

Actually, this last year doesn’t quite count, because he hasn’t been in front of the camera for a review in over a year!

As kids get older, there’s a lot more going on in their lives. With tougher classes and homework as well as dating and a part time job, Jaden has been busy with many other things these past couple years.

So while there may not be recent material to draw from, it’s sure fun to see how he’s grown over the years — and how much his mannerisms have remained the same from when he first got in front of the camera in 2009.

Share with us a blast from the past in this series of video clips from Jaden’s 32 board game video reviews.

Once again, Congratulations Jaden!

And we wish you all the best ahead!