She said she want someone to treat her as an equal & right then we started speeding towards Reno

Reno was a much too short of a trip. I think I want to go back.

The drive through the Sierras in the dark was unreal. A little scary and a little wonderful. Christmas looking trees with thick snow still stuck in the branches. At one point as we hit Truckee, I saw little flakes of snow blowing in the wind. The lamp posts at the side of the road would catch it in the light and you could see these little fluffy bits floating down. Snow was falling and it was almost magical. The lonely, winding roads made me a little afraid but Jose was cool, calm and collected. He drove over 1,000 miles on stick shift and made it look easy. His siblings in the back (twins) Cas and Diana helped me pick out music on my ancient iPod. We laughed, sang and joked around the entire way. It was the perfect bonding experience.

The weather in Reno was incredibly cold for my warm, Southern California blood but I enjoyed the change. The air was heavy with cold and my breath looked like a giant vapor cloud. I saw snow on the ground for the first in decades. Granted, it was dirty, parking lot snow but I still played with it. Not enough to make a snow angel or a snow ball but enough to crunch around in. Snow is completely foreign to me so I took lots of pictures and held the soft, COLD, fluffy stuff in my hands as long as I could.

We hung out with Jose's dad and cousins the entire time. They're all very nice and generous people, so I'm happy to soon call them my family. Even the Reno relatives asked us if we were going to get married soon :)

Speaking of which, it was fun looking at rings on Saturday night. I picked out what style I liked and we set a reasonable budget. Even Jose started looking at wedding bands for himself. This was the ring I liked the best, but maybe the color of the stone might change. Blue is my favorite color, so it was hard to slip this off my finger...

2016 is definitely looking like a great year! I have this wonderful nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach knowing that I will soon be Jose's wife. I am so overwhelmed with happiness each and every day. I go to sleep excited for the next day because it brings me one day closer to our next new chapter. I love him absolutely and completely, with every fiber of my being.