Matt RaibleMatt Raible is a Web Developer and Java Champion. Connect with him on LinkedIn.

The Angular Mini-Book The Angular Mini-Book is a guide to getting started with Angular. You'll learn how to develop a bare-bones application, test it, and deploy it. Then you'll move on to adding Bootstrap, Angular Material, continuous integration, and authentication.

Spring Boot is a popular framework for building REST APIs. You'll learn how to integrate Angular with Spring Boot and use security best practices like HTTPS and a content security policy.

For book updates, follow @angular_book on Twitter.

The JHipster Mini-Book The JHipster Mini-Book is a guide to getting started with hip technologies today: Angular, Bootstrap, and Spring Boot. All of these frameworks are wrapped up in an easy-to-use project called JHipster.

This book shows you how to build an app with JHipster, and guides you through the plethora of tools, techniques and options you can use. Furthermore, it explains the UI and API building blocks so you understand the underpinnings of your great application.

For book updates, follow @jhipster-book on Twitter.

10+ YEARS


Over 10 years ago, I wrote my first blog post. Since then, I've authored books, had kids, traveled the world, found Trish and blogged about it all.

Rafting the Green River through Desolation Canyon

After rafting the Yampa in June, we knew we'd experienced a once-in-a-lifetime kinda trip. We never expected to have two in one summer. When we got an invite to raft Desolation Canyon over Labor Day weekend, we jumped at the opportunity.

The trip started on Jack's birthday: Thursday, August 28th. We drove from Denver to Green River, Utah the night before, and had some adventures along the way. As we were heading down Vail Pass, our trailer started to swing from side to side, almost whiplashing us off the road. We quickly slowed down and didn't go over 65 MPH for the rest of the trip. I figured this was caused by the rear spring spacers we added to the Syncro. The heightened rear caused the raft trailer to be out of balance, and we needed a new hitch to drop it down.

We arrived around 1:30am, popped the top on our camper and went to sleep. The next morning, we woke up and met some of our fellow floaters for the first time. An hour later, were were getting ready to leave and I was inspecting our trailer. That's when I noticed one of the wheels was about to fall off. The bearings were shot and the wheel was barely hanging on.

Luckily, one of the guys we just met had replaced all his trailer's bearings the week before and was on it. He knew exactly what to do and went to work. There was a Napa Auto Parts store a mile away. Two hours and several trips to Napa later, we were back in business and on the road.

We celebrated Jack's 10th birthday while driving to the put in, opening presents and having a good ol' time. We also had some cupcakes to celebrate with everyone once we arrived. Jack was especially pumped for the huckleberries my Mom overnighted.

Happy 10th Bithday Jack! YAY Huckleberries from Mimi and Baba in Montana

We launched with five families total, 10 adults and 10 kids. We had five rafts, a duckey, an inner tube and two motors to get us through the flat water. We didn't get on the river until 6pm that first day, and only made it seven miles before dark.

Launch day at Sand Wash after driving in through Nine Mile Canyon!

Sweet camp spot at Jack Creek cool little walkway from camp to our kitchen at Jack Creek Jack Creek Camp

The water was muddy and we made jokes that it should be called the Brown River instead of the Green River. On the upside, it was warm and the kids had a blast frolicking in it. We got to know our travel companions and were happy we purchased a new motor to combat the winds and flatness. Yes, there were many references to motoring as we cruised down the river.

Wow! Thanks Shan and Aaron for these Squilas! Boys in the Annex Beautiful views and happy under our new bimini shade Jack swimming in the chocolate milk

2nd motor Posse

The rest of the week was fairly uneventful. After the first two days, we didn't use the motors much, and there were quite a few rapids. However, there were no Class IVs and the kids only walked for one Class III. The kids seemed to have a great time, inventing new games every night and exploring for hours at every new campsite. My favorite game was the Werewolves vs. the Angry Mob.

Jack thinks he wants to be a dentist? Umm.. kids found a mouse in our tube

The petroglyphs we saw along the way were pretty cool.

Group Photo at the Petroglyphs!

Time spent on a river always brings out a few good smiles.

Happy Days Love the Caldes!

And dress up as a superhero night was simply awesome.

Tarzan and Jane Family Rule! JZ, Captain America and Star Lord!!!

Dawne and her posse! Kids rule!

Manning uper Hero Family!

Trish's photo from our last night on the river makes me want do it all again.

My favorite night shot

2014 will go down in the books as one of our best rafting years. We only made it on the river a few times, but the week-long trips were amazing. Rafting the Arkansas with our Dads was really fun too. I'm proud to be raising river rats and long for the days I can live in our van down by the river.

Posted in General at Sep 20 2014, 05:11:17 PM MDT 2 Comments
Comments:

I had no idea that you and the kids were on such a great adventure. Thank you for sharing this. I am so happy that Abbie and Jack are having such an amazing childhood. I so appreciate you and Trish!

Posted by Stephanie Christoph on September 21, 2014 at 03:51 PM MDT #

Loved this write-up. Sounds like an epic trip. I was a volunteer river ranger in Deso in 1991. Have been down that river many times. It is magical every time. But that's rivers. Congrats on raising river rats. We definitely need more of those!

Posted by Michelle sturm on September 21, 2014 at 03:52 PM MDT #

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