Trista Sutter: Motherhood is "The Absolute Best Thing"

Though many reality TV romances have had less than happy endings, Ryan and Trista Sutter, who met in 2002 on the first season of ABC’s The Bachelorette, have been happily married for six years!

Trista, 37 – who lives in Colorado with her husband and their two children, Max, 2, and Blakesley, 8-months – recently sat down with Inside TV to chat about her marriage, life as a mother and the “hard work” that is takes to maintain those relationships.

On what she loves about being a mother: “Everyday, I love walking in and seeing my baby girl smiling from ear to ear for me in the morning. I love getting hugs. Not that I ever want my child to hurt, but if Max is like, 'Mommy, mommy,' just knowing that I can be that person for him and be there for him, it's the absolute best thing that has ever happened to me.”

On the kind of dad Ryan is: “So much fun. He is so excited for Blakesley, our youngest, to be able to play like Max is. Because he wants to get down and dirty with her. He wants to be able to take her out in the snow, and teach her how to go sledding, build snowmen, and go skiing. He is so much fun and always really lively with them. Also calming. Blakesley was crying, and he was trying to soothe her and be there for her.”

On her secret to a strong and healthy marriage: “I think it's a mixture of the fact that I think really somebody is watching over us. Maybe not fact, but I believe that. We are committed to each other, we love each other. We like each other. We trust each other and respect each other. All the things you need in a marriage, I think that we possess. Not to say the other people wouldn't possess that. But for some reason, I think we were just meant to be together, and it happened... I feel like we have always been made for each other. We work hard at it. Marriage is not an easy thing, you have to work at it. We have a relationship like everyone else, we have our bad days, we have our great days. It would be nice if it was all rainbows and sunshine, but it's not all the time. Some days it's cloudy. We roll with it. We just celebrated our sixth year anniversary, so I think we are doing something right.”

On how she and Ryan spent their 6-year anniversary: “We actually got a babysitter, which we never do: Max's teacher at school. It's just a two-day toddler program. She came over and had story time for the kids. We went out and just went to dinner and a movie. It was fabulous.”