The Georgia Death Race

I can't even believe I am writing a race recap on this. I never had the desire to attempt this race. I have only ever heard that it was incredibly hard and that the time cut off's were outrageous. So I just threw this race over in a little bucket in my head of races I won't do. There was also another big race in that bucket that I recently took out.. but more on that later. 

What is this beast?  A 74-ish mile trail race through the North Georgia mountains from Vogel State Park to Amicalola Falls State Park. The race traverses some of the most rugged terrain the state has to offer. There is over 16,000 feet of climbing and at the end of the race you must climb the 600 stairs to the top of the falls. The race starts out with a major climb up Coosa and dumps you out on the Duncan Ridge trail to play on the dragon spine. It is intense, it has super tight cut offs in the first half, the climb up to Nimblewill will suck the life from you, and only about 60% of the field will finish. Oh, did I mention you only 25 hours to do it?

 This my friends... is the Georgia Death Race.

The race starts at 5 am on Saturday. Packet pickup was Friday night from 5 to 7 at the finish (Amicalola State Park). You have to drive all the way up to the lodge to retrieve your bib, check in and pick up your 1.5 pound railroad spike that you will carry with you until the end of the race. Don't forget your ID- it's the only way you will get your bib. And don't forget to bring something to wrap up your spike with... I have heard horror stories of the spike rubbing holes in water packs, bladders and peoples skin. Of course I found it fitting that I should wrap my spike up in an ace wrap...very ER nurse-like of me. But, for the record, it worked beautifully. 

The infamous railroad spike

The view from the lodge is gorgeous. It was also very humbling to know that in a few hours, I would be climbing up and down those mountains in pursuit of a GDR finish.

Sean had an awesome photographer taking pics of the "before"

My partner in crime.. who is the reason I got into this whole mess. Next time I get a text from a friend asking me to run 74 miles through the mountains in 25 hours I'm gonna politely decline. 

My spike all wrapped up in the ACE!

I let Arabelle plan out all the details of the race for us. She is a good planner and I have been too busy to even think about it. So she booked a hotel for us near the start in Blairsville at the Best Western Milton Inn. It was only 15 minutes from the start line at Vogel State Park. The alarms went off at 3:30 am and we had oatmeal and coffee. The weather was predicted to be cold and windy. The top of Coosa boasted 45 to 50 mph winds by morning with a real feel in the teens. 

If you know me, even a little, I don't do cold. I hate to be cold. The forecast had me scared to even tow the line. I wasn't sure what to wear or how to layer. I didn't want to be too cold or too hot or to have to haul a bunch of clothes around all day in my pack. But in the end, I ended up wearing a thermal heat gear long sleeve, a fleece pullover, my Northface shell and fleece leggings. I wore toe socks with my Vibrams and leg warmers on top of those. Rich dropped us off at the starting line and there we were... ready to face the day.

I left my car at Amicalola the day before so I would have it there for the finish. The race has a shuttle available that will pick you up from Amicalola at about 2:30 am and shuttle you over to the start line at Vogel if you need it. Luckily, Arabelle and I had our own personal chauffer for the day. Rich also crewed and paced for the race as well, which was awesome! I was glad to be able to drop clothes off mid morning and pick them back up later in the day. No poles are allowed during this race, so I didn't have to worry with that. My pack was crazy heavy. I had 2 liters of water, hand/body warmers, snacks, my spike, Marmot pants for an outer shell if I needed it, battery pack with charger, meds, extra batteries for head lamp, emergency blanket and some other random things. The race does require certain mandatory gear, so you must be prepared to carry that in your pack. 

Now, back to the race... it was go time. Here we were, with so many layers of clothing, both of us far more under-trained than we had intended.. ready to tackle the race. I had a groin injury (that really turned out to be a hip displacement) that had me out for most of Feb and March, Arabelle had ruined her ankle at Forgotten Florida 100 a few weeks prior... so neither of us had trained well for this course. But it was too late for all that now, we showed up and we were determined to finish.

As you can tell from the Aid Station Chart below, the most critical part of this race is the first 21.4 miles. You have to be OUT of Skeenah Gap by 12:05 (lunch time). You need to plan for at least 10 minutes here so you can fuel on food/drink and gather yourself before you tackle the next sections. And trust me when I say this- you will arrive at Skeenah TIRED.

The biggest climbs are in the first 21 miles of this race. Look at the elevation chart below- those miles are ugly. So trying to get to Skeenah Gap in a hurry isn't easy. You don't want to blow yourself up getting there, but you also don't need to go to slow. You have to move at a very steady pace and push on to arrive on time. 

We were both sweating bullets instantly, despite the weather. We quickly took outer shells off as we climbed Coosa. I basically stayed hot the whole race. The fleece pants were overkill for sure. But.. I would always rather be too hot than too cold (not the popular opinion I know). I also had thick gloves on that had to be dumped rather quickly. I just used a set of hand warmers instead. I stopped through white oak to refill my water pack. I always drink a ton at the beginning of a race, and those 7 miles of climbing had me going through the water. Arabelle kept on and I caught up with her. I also ate a little snack. But all in all, get through that first aid at White Oak fast! Waste no time. The second aid station was at Mulky Gap, 13.5 miles in. Rich was working this station, so I dumped off the gloves and extra clothes with him to lighten my load. Once again, I ate some snacks and refilled my pack and we got out quickly. The more time you bank between the start and Skeenah, the better the chances are that you finish. 

The sunrise over the mountains, a fiery orange, and it was breathtaking!

This was pretty early on when I still had lots of layers on. We laughed about how many times we would take the hat/buff OFF, put the hat/buff ON... over and over. As we would get up a mountain the wind gusts would be chilly, but then on the other side of the mountain we would sweat. We did this all day, on/off off/on. 

Beautiful overlook

The "hot" side of the mountain. Ha!

Arabelle had made us a great pace chart. We stayed right on target for the first 50 miles. We arrived at Skeenah about 11:25 and had plenty of time to eat, drink and gather our thoughts. We were both really surprised how well things had been going and how we still felt great, despite the lack of training, and that we were still having fun!

If you make it through Skeenah, you are looking good. But that's just the first hurdle... there are still many more. Point Bravo was the next stop. There is a HUGE climb out of Skeenah, but then a good bit of down into Point Bravo. The miles kept ticking by quickly and we were feeling good. After we left Point Bravo, there was some confusion. According to the chart from the website, there was 3 miles to Swinging Bridge which has no Aid Station but crew only. The first bit of confusion came from someone's crew who said there "was aid just ahead"... however, there is NO aid at Swinging bridge. The next aid isn't until Sapling Gap. The next bit of confusion came from the chart and the distance to Sapling Gap. The math calculations are off and stat there is 4.5 miles from Swinging Bridge to Sapling Gap- however the total distance only changes by 1.5 miles. So essentially, when we left Point Bravo, we thought we only had 4.5 miles to Sapling Gap and the aid station. But taking into account the math error on the chart, there could potentially be 7.5 miles between the two. Arabelle was running very low on water, but that wasn't our biggest concern. We were worried that we would not make the 4:20 pm cut off at Sapling if we indeed had 7.5 miles before we got there. So we decided to really push hard to ensure we got there in time. We had no way of knowing if was 4.5 or 7.5 miles... so we had to prepare for the worst.  We arrived at Sapling Gap over an hour ahead of cut. The distance was about 5.5 miles and we had banked a good bit of time. Unfortunately, we had pushed a lot harder than intended here and this caused us both to get behind on calories and energy. 

Arabelle is NOT a fan of swinging bridges!

Sapling to the Long Creek aid station is about 6 miles. It was a very tough stretch with a lot of climbs. Long Creek is about mile 38 and you have to be out of this aid station by 5:50 pm. We were still way ahead of cut off and very close to pace on the chart Arabelle made us. We hit Long Creek right about 4:45 pm. 

Winding Stair was the 7th stop of the day at approx. mile 45 miles in. From Winding Stair, we had a ton of DOWN-hill to run! Rich would meet us at Jake Bull in 6 miles and he could pace us from there to the finish. 

Winding Stair offered us a lovely beer and drop bags. I chose not to use drop bags this race and things worked out just fine that way. The aid stations all pretty much offered the same fair. PBJ sandwiches, quesadillas with either ham, cheese, avocados or bacon (or some combination of that), cookies, fruit, etc. There was Gatorade and sodas at all the aid stations as well. We were out of Winding Stair about 6:35 pm. which was still over an hour ahead of cut. 

We picked up the pace on the service roads from winding to Jake Bull. It wasn't all down hill, but it did offer a nice break. This is a good section to make up some time on if you need it. It is very runnable, even if at a slower pace. Or at the very least, power hike some of the service road. Jake Bull was 6 miles from the last aid and would put us at mile 52/53. 

Sunset was just as beautiful as sunrise. 

From Jake Bull, there are several miles of old country road to run. We left out of Jake Bull with Rich and when we hit that road I was ready to run. I kept pulling ahead of my partner and at that time I decided I would go ahead and keep pushing toward the goal of sub 23 hours. If you finish GDR in less that 23 hours, you can use the race as a qualifier for entry into Western States I told Rich I was just going to move on ahead and relayed the message back to Arabelle. I really loved this stretch of road. It was out in the middle of nowhere, little mountain homes scattered about it... several four wheelers went by, some of the locals offered us water bottles as we ran up toward Nimblewill. Speaking of the Nimblewill, there is 11 miles between Jake Bull and the Nimblewill aid station. The first 5 miles move pretty quickly, but those next 6 miles are straight up and they literally sucked the life right out of my soul. Once the old pavement turns into forest service gravel things just get downright bad. I don't ever like to go more than 8 miles between aid stations- that's just my preference, and this 11 mile stretch was relentless. So let me break the 11 miles down for you... the first 5 are mostly runnable and involve some pavement, the next 4 miles are a long, slow, crawl up forest service road. ALL UP HILL. And then, when you get to the top and see the blinking lights and here the loud music, your soul will be crushed again because it is NOT the aid station after all and just a fake... you will continue on through the woods for 2 more miles before finally reaching Nimblewill. I hit this aid station about  12:45 am, still 1.25 hours ahead of cuts. 

The fake aid station that put me in terrible place mentally. 

I knew that I would have a little over 3 hours to get to the finish in time to break 23 hours. The finish line was 10 miles away according to the chart I had. The last bit consists of the Len Foote Hike Inn trail- which is about 5.5 miles down into the state park. The trail is mostly downhill, but it has been heavily used and has lots of roots and rocks. The temps had dropped into the 30's by this point and the wind was still 20 to 30 mph gusts, but I had picked back up most of my warm clothes at Jake Bull in preparation for the night, so I was comfortable.  I called myself moving "rather quickly" down this trail (but in reality I was only clocking 21 min miles). As I finished the trail and dumped out into the state park, I kept looking at my watch thinking man this is going to be close. The course traverses some TRASH rocky non-sense that isn't even a trail and slows your weary legs down to a crawl. I lost some time here- though it was a short section. Then, after a while I finally see the finish line. But... I already knew it was a false hope. This path takes you right up through the parking lot to the Top of the Falls trail and the 600 steps up. But before you can start the stairs (you know this if you have ever been to Amicalola).. you have to crawl your way up the approach trail. It was horrible. I could hardly move, hardly breathe.. I kept checking my watch and losing time. When I finally hit the stairs I lost my mind and just BLEW up them. I passed about 4 people on those stairs. I was so ready to be done!!

ALL the stairs

After the stairs were complete, we hit the road back down to the finish... I thought I really might have a chance! But just as we came down off the road we hit another trail. The trail had a million switchbacks and I lost so much time. I gave up at that point and just slogged it in the rest of the way. I finally saw the lights of the finish line. I was so happy, I was almost done! But... just like every other aspect of the race... it wasn't easy. You had to wade through the cold waters of the creek to the finish. And of course I placed my foot wrong and fell into the icy water. But it didn't matter. I did not care that it was 4 am and 30 degrees with a wind chill temp of 25. I didn't care that I had missed the Western cut-off by 9 mins... I didn't care about anything but the fact that SOMEHOW, SOMEWAY... I had pulled off a finish! I did it, I finished the Georgia Death Race! 

I humbly walked over to the coffin and dropped my old rusty spike in. I have never been so happy to hear a "clink". I was handed my engraved spike and then I crawled to the car and cranked up the heat. 

I had brought blankets/pillows and a little air mattress to be able to sleep some before I headed out. I laid down all the seats, piled on the blankets and passed out. As I was lying there in the car before I drifted off I couldn't believe that I had finished this race. I had little training before hand. I hadn't even worked a 50k in for this training cycle. My last major run had been Grindstone 100 in September. Since that I had a track race where I got 31 miles in November, a few half marathons in December and a trail marathon in January. I had several long road runs of 20 miles and gym workouts on the stair step... but that was it. I hardly ran in February or March.  I guess the fact that I have a solid baseline and usually get 25 or more miles a week was enough to get me through. Or maybe ultra running really is 80% mental and 20% physical like people say? Either way- it is done. I got the spike. And I will NEVER go back 😂

As for gear/nutrition and other random facts:

***I got a new pack and I will forever be happy about it. The Salomon Skin 12 is the best vest I have EVER worn. It held an insane amount of "junk" and was super comfortable. I am a huge fan.

***I also got a new headlamp which is WAY more lightweight than my old one. I went with the Petzl Tikka. It can use a rechargeable battery or 3 AAA's. It lasted forever, was incredibly bright and most importantly it was very light (carrying your lamp the whole race was a requirement).

*** I ate from the aid stations as usual and just like always I was sick of the quesadillas and cookies by mile 50. So the last 20 miles I survived on the usual Sour Patch Kids and water. 

*** I took a half of a caffeine pill 4 times this race. It worked so much better than trying to drink the caffeine. 

*** I wore my trail Vibrams, despite the cold temps. 

*** 41 women started this race. Only 17 of them finished. 

Now... onto the next big race... Cruel Jewel 100. Once in the bucket of No Way, but now a stark reality staring me in my face. Here's hoping training is a little better between now and May!

2021 Hawkins Family Year in Review

    I am very late posting my year in review. I have been so busy with work I have let quite a few things go to the wayside, specifically Christmas Cards and dusting. I had to just let those things go... I have learned a lot this last year as I found a whole new life for myself... and one of those things is that I just can't do everything. So I have had to let go of some things. I though about letting the blog go, but I decided I would just do it when I could and make it happen. It is still very important to me that the kids as well as Kevin and I are able to look back when we are all older and remember all the good times and the successes and the vacations and the sports and how blessed we are! 

    I graduated from nursing school in May and started working full time in July. This was the exact time Kevin hung up the store manager keys and never stepped foot into another Lowes again. We had planned to eventually switch roles of "bread winner", but we never intended it to be so soon. After a long chain of events, we fell into our new roles rather abruptly. No time to plan or think about it... we just switched. Kevin was now stay at home Dad and I became full time out of the house worker. It has taken months for us to adjust and I would say that there are things we are still trying to figure out. The kids have also had to adjust and some days are better than others. It has been hard, but we are trusting in the Lord and enjoying our new "roles". 

Carter continues to move up at Home Depot and is very much on the hunt to land an assistant manager position as quickly as possible. He continued to go to school online at Southern Crescent for his associates in Business. Maggie graduated high school in May and worked very hard to obtain all her pre-requisites for the nursing program by taking both summer and fall classes. She found out in November she was in the program and would start January 2022. She also played college soccer for Gordon this year. Jada started 10th grade in the fall. She continued to play varsity basketball for the school. She also got her learners license! Kennedy started 5th grade, I can't believe she is almost in middle school. She is still playing full time travel soccer with her team and she loves them all dearly. Hooper started Kindergarten,  He is growing up so fast. He played soccer and basketball for the rec teams this year. Kevin coached his basketball team. He was so cute out on the court!

We truly had an amazing 2021 and I can't wait to blog all about it! Here we go...

We started the year out doing some "day dates". Our first day date was st the indoor skydiving center! We had a great time, although it was much harder than I expected it to be.

Kevin was better at skydiving than I was!

I spent a good portion of the beginning of the year giving COVID vaccines.  I think it is safe to say that I administered hundreds of vaccines during clinical in the winter.

One of my best friends was diagnosed with breast cancer, this was our last trail runs before she started treatments. 

First trip to Callaway Gardens for the year!

They found flowers.

Dauset trail runs for girls only Sunday Runday

Post run parking lot pics 😎

Kennedy played indoor soccer called fut-sol during the off season. 

I was able to get my first dose of the covid vaccine in January and I was very thankful!

We celebrated Annie's birthday with tacos!

We spent a whole lotta nights watching these two play soccer. Maggie was finishing up her senior year of varsity soccer for Pike County and Matt finished up his junior season. 

My favorite team captains!

I think this was the day we administered over 650 vaccines to local residents at the Southern Rivers vaccine clinic. It was an honor to help do my part to slow the spread of COVID. 

We went on a last minute camping trip for winter break to O’lena State Park and River Rise. I found a little pop up camper on FB Marketplace and decided we would give pop up camping a go. We have had a Class C RV and tent camped for many years, so this was a new experience for us. 

There had been a ton of rain the week before so the river was very full and moving very fast.

The trip did not go completely as planned, Hooper woke up throwing up the second night we were there. He then gave the stomach bug to everyone else.. Except Maggie. Somehow she managed to avoid it’s wrath. But we didn’t let it stop our fun!

This is the first time we have visited central Florida in the winter. Usually we go to the springs during the summer time, when the manatees aren’t around as much. So we just HAD to go and swim with them while we were there in February! 

The water was the usual 72 degrees, so we dawned wet-suits and took a boat out into the Crystal River/Kings Bay area to find the manatees. We were able to snorkel in the water over about 15 manatees, several of which interacted with us and we were able to touch them. It was amazing!

We brought warm clothes to put on for the boat ride back!

We hiked to the river rise, where the water swirled and swirled and then was sucked down for 3 miles underground. It then pops back up 3 miles down the road. The river essentially flows 3 miles underground! It was so cool to see , and also kind of scary.

We kayaked the Sante Fe River as well, and it was so awesome! It was a 7 mile route that had multiple spring runs! A lot of the smaller springs were blacked out because of the heavy rains.

We also visited Devils Den, a huge cave spring!

I spent as many Sunday Runday's with Brooke and Annie on the trail. We had a picnic of cheese and crackers after this particular run! 

And of course there plenty of study sessions as I finished up my last semester of nursing school. 

Watching my girl finish out senior year on the soccer field. 

Milktoast celebrated her 3rd birthday!

I completed my last set of clinicals at Navicent in Macon. We all picked up are student parking passes for the last time!

Keke won first place with her team at their first tournament of the season. 

I survived my first 12 hour shift at the hospital and I absolutely fell in love with nursing. 

Lots of time spent with my sweet friend as she battled cancer. It was such a hard year for her and we tried everything to help her get her mind off of it!

Kayaking at FDR in Pine Mountain

THE BACHELOR!! We love our Bachelor season finale viewing parties!

Maggie signed to play college soccer for Gordon State. 

She played 

Jada lettered as a freshman in Varsity basketball. 

Kennedy enjoyed a muddy soccer game!

Matt and Maggie finally got to enjoy a real prom! They took their photos at High Falls State Park. 

They went to prom with their good friends Livi and Victor

A  beautiful Easter Sunday with the family!

We all had a wonderful Easter meal at Mema and Papa's house.

We decided to have some graduation pictures taken! I absolutely love them and I am so happy we had them made. 

The champagne pictures were my favorite!

Jada turned 15 and we celebrated her day at Ponce City Market!

She also got her nose pierced. She had been begging to get it pierced!

It looks so cute on her!

She also got her learners license, although it did take her a couple of tries...

Day trip kayaking the Flint River with Brooke and Annie!

Maggie celebrated her 18th birthday! 

Soccer for the birthday girl!

Maggie got a tattoo for her 18th birthday

We played LOTS of soccer!

Maggie's senior soccer banner!

And then... I turned 40! Mom surprised me with a banner in the yard.

We spent the weekend in the mountains on a girls trip! We had so much fun!

Thecabin we stayed at in Brasstown Bald had the best view!

We had matching shirts for dinner, and I was decked out in gold, a crown and a sash!

And then someone dared me to jump in a cold lake and rescue a water trike... so I did of course. HA!

At the top of Brasstown Bald!

All my favorite peeps!

Carter turned 20, we all had lunch together in Peachtree City

More varsity soccer for my senior, this was at the elite 8 game!

Moving on to the Final 4!

The varsity girls are decked out for the boys final 4 game. 

Keke and her teamates were the best ball girls all season!

Maggie was so cute for the boys game.

For graduation/18th birthday, Maggie really wanted a puppy. She picked out the cutest little golden doodle from a local breeder. This was when Jersey 2 weeks old, Maggie could not bring her home until she was a little older.

We enjoyed watching our sweet girl head to another Final 4!

This was the first time in the history of the school that these girls right here made it to TWO final fours. They all made the team as freshman and continued to play together through senior year. Three of them even went on to play college soccer together at Gordon State!

Mother's Day at church with my sweet babies. 

We had such a good time dressing up and supporting our girls at the final 4!

BIG HEADS!

The ball girls

We ended up losing out in the final 4, but we were so proud of our lady Pirates!

Maggie and I both received our cap and gowns! We took a pic wearing each others gowns!

Graduation Day! I really did not want to walk for graduation, but pretty much every single person I know wanted me to participate... so... I did!

I was so blessed to have such a great group of friends to go through school with. 

And then there were graduation parties! First Keri's

Then Chloes's

Then...

MEXICO!!!

We took an all inclusive graduation trip to Cancun to celebrate! I even parasailed for the first time, it was absolutely amazing. 

The day finally came to bring our sweet Jersey girl home!

She was so tiny!

Senior Day for Maggie at church. 

Maggie and Maggie during the senior walk at the primary school, such a sweet tradition

Photo shoots were kind of a thing...

Hooper's last day of Pre-K

He had a great year with Mrs. Colodo

Maggie's last soccer banquet. 

She won the coaches award. She loves Coach O'steen

And then Maggie's graduation party!

We had a wonderful time celebrating Maggie with friends

Graduation Day! Maggie's graduation was held at the Atlanta Motor Speedway and everyone attended. 

We even snuck Jersey in

Our graduate, Class of 2021

Lots of fun at Callaway all summer

Little Jersey was fitting right in!

 Hooper and Kennedy attended soccer camp at Gordon State College, and Maggie worked the camp as well!

All the girls had a sleep over one night during camp. 

And lots of summer fun at Crystal Springs Pool

Brooke and I took a quick get away to Chattanooga to run some trails!

This was my first time on look out mountain!

Summer officially began with Maggie's senior trip to Panama City Beach! And of course we took our Jersey with us.

One of our favorite things to do in Panama City is to rent a pontoon for the day and hang out on the beautiful water!

Kennedy celebrated her 10th birthday! She had an outdoor sleepover on the trampoline with her friends. 

We took up pickle ball! The whole family really enjoyed playing pickle ball and we played all summer. 

Kevin and I took a day date to play disc golf- we were not so good at it!

My first official Coosa Loop- although I have been on this trail many times, I have never really done the whole loop. Annie had just recovered from chemo and surgery and really needed to prove to herself she could do it! So went spent the day running a Coosa Loop and had an amazing time

Jersey just kept growing!

At the beginning of July we took our annual trip to Manatee Springs State Park to camp with our friends. 

We took our friends to Devils Den!

We hiked at the campground to the sink holes

Night time fish chasing

We rented pontoon boats to enjoy the waters of Crystal River. This turned out to be quite the adventure... I will just leave it at that. Ha!

It was all fun and games until the monsoon lightening storm...

Early morning hike up the spring run

Kennedy's actual birthday was the last night of our trip.

We kayaked at Silver Springs State Park and it was just beautiful!

There was swimming at Nay-Nays house

And lots of fishing!

And of course lots of time at Callaway Gardens!

Kevin spent a lot of the spring and summer coaching his AAU basketball teams. This was the last event of the year at the GWCC. We came up to watch his 17U team play

Lots of running at Dauset Trails with Brooke

We celebrated the 4th of July with the Connell Family!

We took our usual few days to camp at one our favorite place, FDR State Park

We met friends at Callaway Gardens

We also met a group of friends at The Liberty Bell Pool!

Summer nights always involve campfires and marshmellows

I took the kids to the top of Pine Mountain, Dowell's knob

Training runs!

That one time Arabelle forgot her shoes and ran in my busted Adidas work shoes.. ha!

And then the day finally came.. I got my big girl job!

There was nothing more rewarding than being able to do what I love, care for people. I was so happy to take a position at Fayette Piedmont in the Emergency Room as an RN. 

Jada spent the week in Colorado with the youth group and Journey Church

Always time for lunch dates with special friends. 

Still growing...

I continued to train for Grindstone 100

No matter the weather conditions, I put the time in!

More lazy days of summer

And time in the lake at Callaway

And more running on the trail... 

 

Walking Jersey girl! 

And right about the time I started working, the Delta surge of Covid hit. This was after 12 hours of N95 wearing..

We spent the weekend at Vogel state park while I ran H9. It was just Kevin and I and Kennedy and Hooper. We had a lovely weekend away!

First day of school 2021- Jada 10th grade, Kennedy 5th grade and Hooper started Kindergarten

Fall season of soccer started back up with a tournament at MOBA for Kennedy

And we watched Maggie play her first game as a Gordon Highlander

First Place at the tournamnet

This was Annie's almost last day of chemo treatment. It was a hard day for her, but we ended with lunch at Ponce and had a great time. 

We spent Labor Day weekend in Hilton Head enjoying the last of the warm weather. 

Maggie went fishing with Matt at the lake and caught this huge catfish!

Weekday runs with Laura!

Still getting bigger..

Annie finally started feeling better! We took advantage of good running days!

Hooper signed up for rec soccer and we just loved watching him play. He was so cute on the field!

Sunday Runday! No boys allowed!

Soccer was in full swing for the Hawkins family by mid fall

We really enjoyed watching Maggie play soccer at the college level

We took the little kids and the camper up to Fort Mountain State Park for fall break

We fished...

and hiked...

And took in the amazing views

Jada and Ivan attended the HOCO dance together with JJ and his girlfriend

I ran for the first time at Cubihatcha and had a great time!

Lunch date with my fave RN's!

Halloween came!

This year Keke wanted to join her friends trick or treating!

Of course we had to dress up Jersey and take her!

And before we knew it.. deer season opened!! Maggie and Papa both came home with a deer opening week!

Carter took a new position at work and we were so proud of him!

 Little soccer cuties

Hooper celebrated his 6th birthday, and of course he wanted to have a Christmas birthday!

He also wanted another nerf gun war!

And then there was dancing..

Hooper celebrated Thanksgiving at school with a play and a feast. He was a pilgrim in the program. 

Jada continued to play varsity basketball, her 2nd year

Sunrise runs on Pine Mountain

I could never thank this girl enough... she taught me so much in our time together in the ER. This pic was from her last day at Fayette Piedmont. I was so sad to see her go, but happy that she was happy! I will forever be thankful and grateful to have had the opportunity to work with her.   

The only picture I got from Thanksgiving... sadly. I enjoyed spending time with family and getting to see my cousin. 

We enjoyed decorating Christmas cookies with Crumbles and seeing Santa!

Hunting with my daddy is always a great joy! 

Maggie got her vaccines for nursing school

Carter got a couple of deer this season too!

Hooper also played recreation basketball this season. Kevin coached his team. Hooper was so precious to watch on the court. 

Angie and I watching Jada and Madelyn play basketball!

Sunday Runday!

Before Christmas we took a quick family vacation to Chattanooga. We started the trip off with Spiderman in the IMAX!

The next morning we all went to the Tennessee Aquarium

Ice skating at the Choo Choo is a must!

Our annual ladies Christmas party at Tammie's house!

Christmas Eve at Mema and Papa's house. 

I had to work Christmas Eve, but I was able to celebrate with everyone before I left. 

Christmas in the elevator at work was a first!

Luckily I made it home in time for Christmas! The kids were all still asleep and snuggled up in their beds. 

Santa was very good to Keke and brought her a phone!

Jersey got a Christmas haircut

And just when we thought Covid had settled down... here comes Omicron. And back to wearing an N95 for 12 hours. 

Kennedy and Hooper both got their vaccines so we can go on a cruise! 

We had such a wonderful year and we are so incredibly blessed! We thank God every day for another moment together to love Him and love each other. Looking forward to another wonderful year in 2022!