Tribute #6 - Hunting Camp Weekends

Tribute #6 goes out to the numerous girls weekends spent at Hunting Camp. Those weekends were "the best weekend of the year" kind of weekends!

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I may have the dates wrong, but from March 2001 to March 2010, a group of ladies would venture to the middle of nowhere (or so it seemed) for a weekend in the woods of western Alabama. The property was hundreds of acres of hunting land with an old farmhouse perfect for housing any number of people. The group started hitting the camp for a weekend when we all had small children....it was a 'sanity' weekend and an opportunity for our husbands to really bond with the babies. =)

We started with four of us...grew to six...and had a few years where one would be missing for whatever reason. There was a family death, a child hospitalization, other health issues and getting ready for a move that disrupted the group different years, but we managed to get together one way or the other. All but one weekend was at the camp.....in 2004 three of us spent the weekend in Pensacola instead in the world's smallest cabin. That year was also special because it was me with two pregnant women....not the wildest of weekends!

The weekends would be spent riding four-wheelers, cooking wonderful food and drinking coffee out on the porch in the rocking chairs. We'd catch up on our families, our jobs, our hurts and our happys - sometimes crying but mostly laughing as the weekend raced by. Only the first year or two did we all actually live in Prattville together.....two of us moved away shortly thereafter but again, we made it back, year after year.

These weekends were special for so many reasons. The opportunity to simply relax, to get away from the chaos of the house, the family, the job...this was essential. The opportunity to grow our friendships, offer support when there was pain or hugs when there was joy. This was special too. We shared so much during those weekends.

I'll say that I formed my greatest friendships over the years with these women. At 30+ years old, these were the women that I was finally able to knock down walls with, to be totally honest, to bare my soul. These were the women that cried and prayed with me as I struggled and fought to make sense of it all way back when.

If you're friends with me on FB, you can look through my photo albums....you'll see probably at least two or three albums from past Hunting Camps. Take a look and TELL ME they don't look like fun!!