13 Years

Today Jason and I celebrated our 13 year wedding anniversary. It is pretty hard for me to believe. By looking at the numbers I'm shocked to realize it has been 13 years, but in my heart it feels like we've been married forever. I can't imagine my life without Jason.
It all began just over 14 years ago. We met at a street fair in Spring Valley in July. I had gone there for country dancing and ended up meeting Jason. We had a rough couple of first weeks, he was working out of town and I was busy with friends. Finally 4 weeks after we first met we went on our first date, to a rodeo. We've been together ever since. By October we were looking at rings and I brought him home to meet the family. In November I brought Jason home for a Pina Family Thanksgiving. Jason was the only person I had ever brought home from college and the whole family knew this was something serious. On that trip home, sitting in a corner booth at the Cantina, I told Mom that Jason was the man I was going to marry. She was speechless.
The day after Christmas, Jason proposed. I was shocked because although I knew we were going to be married eventually, I didn't know he was ready to propose then. I'll never forget my mom's reaction. She very progressively let me know that it was okay if Jason and I lived together for several years before the wedding. I'm not sure if she was relieved or disappointed when I told her we didn't believe in living together before marriage.
In the spring of 1996, as I was finishing up my college degree, we planned the wedding. Jason and I made the major decision and Mom did the rest. We chose to get married at Silver Oak in the Alexander Valley. Justin Meyer was kind enough to let us use the property. His only requirement were the wedding had to be on a Sunday, it couldn't be in September, and he had to be invited. We pushed the limits and chose Sunday, September 1st of Labor Day weekend. Thankfully Justin agreed to the first since it was unlikely Harvest would begin that early. The wedding was absolutely perfect, thanks to all of mom's planning. The Honeymoon (in the Poconos) was less than perfect but definitely gave us something to laugh about.
The past 13 years have been great. We've been blessed with three beautiful children. We have a great marriage, good jobs, a nice house. We are surrounded by family and are very much in love.
I can't wait to discover what the next 13 years have in store for us.