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Laura Lohr

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Nice List Santa Letter

December 5, 2013 by Laura Lohr Leave a Comment

I really want to share my friend Marissa’s awesome Etsy shop called Merry Mailbox.  She generously extended the opportunity for me to order one of her most popular items—the personalized Nice List Santa Letter.  I knew that Allie would be over the moon to receive a letter from Santa.  After answering a few questions, the letter from Santa was on its way!

Santa Letter from Merry Mailbox 72px

It was such a sweet letter.  We were able to personalize Allie’s letter by mentioning her accomplishments, including her swimming and being a finalist in the local fire department’s art contest.  She was so excited that Santa was noticing her good behavior, which was perfect, because a few weeks before that, she had told me she hadn’t been very good this year.  Which isn’t true at all!  She is such a sweet little girl!  At the same time, it didn’t hurt to remind her that Santa likes when she cleans her room, takes care of the cat and listens to Mommy and Daddy.

As soon as Allie received her letter from Santa Claus, she began drafting her own letter to Santa.  It was so very cute!  She was really happy with her Nice List Certificate, which is attached to the bottom of the Santa letter.  She put it up on our mantle.

The entire presentation of the letter was so beautiful and professionally done.  First of all, the letter comes in an unmarked outer envelope, so as to keep the kiddos from discovering the source.  The envelope from Santa was adorable!  I love that there are so many details on it, including the postmark and the Santa stamp.

Santa Envelope
Example of the envelope from Santa

The Merry Mailbox has four letters to choose from: the Personalized Santa letter, Baby’s First Christmas letter, the Personalized Religious letter and of course, the Nice List Santa letter.

The Merry Mailbox has extended their deadline for ordering to December 10th.  Make sure to go to Merry Mailbox’s Etsy shop and place your order right away.  Your little ones will definitely love it!

 

 

Filed Under: Holiday Cheer, Reviews Tagged With: Christmas, Etsy Shop, Holidays, Merry Mailbox, Nice List, Reviews, Santa Letter

Anniversary and 40th Birthday Celebration in Sonoma with The Wine Road, Day 2

September 6, 2013 by Laura Lohr Leave a Comment

Quivira Grapes

I posted about the anniversary and 40th birthday celebration we had in Sonoma on The Wine Road back on this post HERE. Today, I want to continue sharing our adventure on day two. We had such a great time and one blog post just wasn’t enough to cover all the fun we had!

On day two, we woke up and had breakfast at the Hilton, where we stayed. After searching for the best online deals, we used the hotel shuttle to take us back to the airport to rent a car. We picked up a Ford Focus and headed to our first winery of the day—The Francis Ford Coppola Winery in Geyserville. The winery was over-the-top awesome! The grounds are beautiful. We felt like we had arrived on a Las Vegas casino property, with the beautiful grounds, the resort-style pool and all its grandeur.

Francis Ford Coppola Entrance
Entrance to Francis Ford Coppola Winery. We decided to call our Ford Focus rental car, Francis Ford, after seeing the winery. From there out, our little rental was Francis Ford. (We’re nerds!)

Francis Ford Coppola Pool

The beautiful Francis Ford Coppola Pool, which you purchase a day pass to swim in

When we arrived at Francis Ford Coppola Winery, we went to the concierge to find out where we should go to redeem our three day pass to The Wine Road, which entitled us to complimentary tastings at over 80 different wineries. We were directed to the inside of the main building, where we found a friendly wine host that was more than happy to share the lovely wines that FFCW had to offer. We fell in love with several wines and had a lovely chat with our lovely host, who was a Southern California transplant to the area. She was informative about the area, attractions we should not miss and we had a great conversation.

Mr Bear Coppola Concierge

Mr. Bear standing in front of the concierge at FFCW

Coppola Painting Wine

This was one of the prettiest bottles! I loved the bottle and the wine!

Coppola Directors Cut Wine

This was the bottle we settled on. There were so many great wines, but this was the one we liked the taste of best.

After our tasting, we walked around the grounds and got to see some awesome memorabilia from several of Francis Ford Coppola’s movies, including:

Mr Godfather Bear

The desk from the movie, “The Godfather”

Tucker Car

The car from the movie, “Tucker”

Francis Ford Coppola Platoon

Memorabilia from the movie, “Apocalypse Now”

It was a great day and we were so impressed by the grandiosity of the winery. It’s definitely a “must-see” for anyone visiting Sonoma. It was our first winery we visited in Sonoma and it left quite an impression. LOVED IT! I think we could have spent all day at Francis Ford Coppola, enjoying all they have to offer, nevertheless there was much more wine tasting ahead of us!

Next, we visited Quivira Vineyards and Winery in the Dry Creek River Valley of Healdsburg (Pronounced heels-berg. It would take 4 days for us to master the pronunciation!). The location was recommended to us by Mr. Bear’s step-brother and it was a fabulous recommendation, indeed!

We spent some time sampling the amazing wines and learned about the various varietals that Quivira has to offer. The Dry Creek River Valley is beautiful—as is all of Sonoma.

 

Quivira VineyardsThe breathtaking vineyards of Quivira

Mr Bear at QuiviraMr. Bear at Quivira

 

Quivira Mr Mrs BearSelfie of Mr. Bear and I at Quivira

Quivira Grapes

The grapes were very close to harvest everywhere we went. We would have loved to be there for the Sonoma Valley Crush Festival that is happening at the end of this month.

Unfortunately, it was getting late, as the wineries usually close at 5:00 p.m. daily. We cut our visit much too short at Quivira to squeeze just one more wine tasting in. We found our way to the Raymond Burr Vineyards. It was equally beautiful, driving around the Dry Creek River Valley. The vineyards were especially gorgeous, with the grapes so ripe on the vines. The weather was perfect!

They were getting ready to close, so we didn’t have as much time as we liked to visit, however we got to see a lot of Perry Mason memorabilia. Like this:

Raymond Burr’s awards for the television series, “Perry Mason.”

Raymond Burr Mr Bear

Mr. Bear, holding one of the many awards Mr. Burr won for his role as Perry Mason. It was extraordinarily heavy!

Before we left, I caught one last view:

Raymond Burr Vineyards

Beautiful!

We went back to our hotel to get changed for dinner and came home to:

Hilton milk and cookies

Milk and cookies from the Hilton!

…and lastly, we enjoyed a fantastic dinner at Monti’s Rotisserie and Bar, courtesy of The Wine Road.

Monti’s is one of five Stark Restaurants in the Santa Rosa area. There food is delicious. The atmosphere is amazing. The service is phenomenal. Did I mention the food? Because, nom, nom, nom, nom:

 

Montis DinnerMr. Bear ordered this delicious dish.

Montis Mussels and FriesWhile I, on the other hand, opted for the mussels and fries. The food. Oh, the food!

We finished the day with a dip in the pool and jacuzzi, then a nightcap (or two) at the hotel bar. It was a long, wonderful, amazing day. I couldn’t be more relaxed if I tried.

This is Part Two of our Sonoma Wine Trip. Click below read about other parts of our trip:

Anniversary and 40th Birthday Celebration in Sonoma with The Wine Road, Day One

Disclaimer: The Wine Road generously provided us with complimentary three day wine tasting passes and gift certificates to the Stark Restaurants, including Monti’s Rotisserie and Bar. Regardless, I was truly pleased with all the products and services we received and only recommend those that I can honestly recommend to my readers.

Filed Under: Vacation Tagged With: Anniversary, Birthday, Celebration, Francis Ford Coppola Winery, Healdsburg, Marriage, Monti's Rotisserie and Bar, Quivira Winery, Raymond Burr Vineyards, Reviews, Santa Rosa, Sonoma, Stark Restaurants, The Wine Road, Wine Tasting

Built to AMAZE! Ringling Bros Circus

July 25, 2013 by Laura Lohr Leave a Comment

Ringling Bros Clowns

When we were invited to see Ringling Bros Built to Amaze show this year, I was sad to find out that the show would be happening while we were going to be on vacation. Yea, vacation. Boo, missing the circus. Fortunately, my parents are going to be able to take Allie and my niece in our absence. Yea!

One of my favorite childhood memories is going to the circus with my family. My dad has always loved the circus, but not just any circus. No, he has always preferred the Ringling Bros circus. I still remember watching the three ring extravaganza at the Los Angeles Colosseum, when I was as young and even younger than Allie is now. It seemed almost magical, seeing the trapeze artists and one of my favorites—the big cats. Although, I still enjoy the silliness of the clowns. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Reviews, Synergy Tagged With: Built to Amaze, Circus, family, Family fun, Reviews, Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus

Back to the Basics with Weight Watchers

April 4, 2013 by Laura Lohr 1 Comment

IMG_20130404_081201_350

Disclaimer: I was offered a three-month trial to participate in Weight Watchers.  I was given the choice to join online or in person.  I chose IN PERSON, however the Weight Watchers E-Tools were not included in this trial, so I purchased the E-Tools with my own money.  I have participated in Weight Watchers before and would only recommend brands and products I personally believe in.

It has been a few years since I did Weight Watchers.  After having my daughter, I lost about 40 pounds, ran a marathon six months post-partum and I felt amazing.  Somewhere along the line, I let some negativity creep in and I lost my motivation.  I am not even sure how it all happened now.  All I know is that I stopped giving myself the attention I know I deserve.

Years later, I am working my way back to getting fit.  I have been running on the treadmill and doing about 20 miles a week.  I’ve been doing interval training, which consists of a quarter mile of running all out and alternating with a quarter mile of walking at a 6.0 incline.  I’ve noticed that my endurance has improved tremendously and so has my confidence.  I keep my 5 and 8 pound dumbbells near the treadmill.  I do several sets of dumbbell work during the walking part of my workout, including shoulder presses, bicep curls, triceps extension, hammer curls and lateral raises.  I have been really sore, but I am noticing tiny little changes in my arms.  It makes me feel strong!

IMG_20130321_131205

This is my treadmill and Surf Shelf.  I’ve made this my own little corner.  I’ve been consistent with my exercise and I’m completely addicted to Drop Dead Diva.  I’ve been watching it when I’m on the treadmill. You can see my smaller hand weights on the right and my large water on the left.  Heart rate monitor is up at the top, with my Yurbuds headphones, pedometer and Garmin.

I have completed two weeks with Weight Watchers now.  [Read more…]

Filed Under: Gadgets, Health, Reviews, Weight Loss Tagged With: Drop Dead Diva, family, Health, Marathon, Reviews, running, Treadmill, Weight Loss, Weight Watchers, Weight Watchers 360

Living La Vida Loaf-A #Tillamook #LoafLove

March 10, 2013 by Laura Lohr Leave a Comment

image001

In November, we were invited to join the Loaf Love Tour at the World Famous San Diego Zoo, hosted by Food Network’s own Chef Keegan of D Bar, right here in our neighborhood.  Tillamook Cheese, The Zoo, a great chef feeding us?  Yes, please!  We had an incredible experience, while being treating like VIP’s for the day.  Loaf Love? Yea, we got it!

Tillamook Allie

We were part of the private party at the beautiful San Diego Zoo, while Chef Keegan taught us how to make the best grill cheese sandwich.  After, we were given all the ingredients to make our own grill cheese, while competing with other San Diego bloggers.  We didn’t win, but I assure you that our grill cheese?  THE best EVA! 

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Allison Weekly, Community, Entertainment, Events, Family, Reviews Tagged With: Community, Events, family, Loaf Love Tour, Reviews, San Diego, San Diego Zoo, Tillamook, Tillamook Cheese

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About Laura:

Wife, mom, runner, geek, lifestyle blogger, fitness badass, world traveler, social media lover. San Diego transplant, living in Temecula's wine country.

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2020 was weird. There were good times and bad. I'm 2020 was weird. There were good times and bad. I'm glad that we made it through. I am looking forward to starting fresh in 2021. I have a lot of #goals for #2021. Many are recycled from last year's #visionboard, but that's okay. I have my canceled #marathon coming up in May. I'll finally apply to #lawschool and follow my dreams, wherever they take me.  Happy new year!
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25 days until inauguration. We're repurposing our 25 days until inauguration. We're repurposing our countdown counter.
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#bidenmytime #inauguration #hope #vote2020 #vote #bidenharris2020 #bidenharris
I finished the #sandiegoholidayhalf yesterday. It I finished the #sandiegoholidayhalf yesterday. It was quite an accomplishment! Virtual racing isn't the same as racing pre covid. Nonetheless, I'm getting back to some consistent running and trying to get to a healthy place.

For Christmas, hubby's car needed to be replaced. We bought a #minicooper last week and he's over the moon. The green is amazing! I love how it stands out! He met me at the finish to drive me back to the start. What a fun car!
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I love our tree this year. It's just lovely. We go I love our tree this year. It's just lovely. We got ourselves a new fake tree this year and I'm absolutely in love with it.
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#christmas #seasonsgreetings #holiday #holidayseason #holidays #holidaydecor #christmascheer #christmastree
Time is doing things to my face, and that's okay. Time is doing things to my face, and that's okay. I finally got my hair done for the first time in 2020. I had previously got a covid cut in the backyard several months back, but this was the first time having a professional do my hair ALL. YEAR. I felt so good, I came home and put my pajamas on. 😂 It's been a really hard year, but I have grown so much this year and I'm not just talking about my pants size. 😂 Life is good.
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This is where it all started. This was where our f This is where it all started. This was where our first date happened. More than a quarter of a century ago, Eric asked me on a date and took me to the restaurant on the end of this pier. As it happened, my mom ended up joining us. This was a fortuitous twist, as Eric forgot his wallet, and I didn't have any money, as a starving college student.

I started my 5 mile run at that same pier. I smiled to myself, remembering simpler times that, at the time, didn't seem so simple. I breathed in the fresh air and hung on to these memories. I am so grateful for the blind date that worked out to be our love story.
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We went to #joshuatree for a family get away. I gr We went to #joshuatree for a family get away. I grew up in the Mojave desert and had never been. This is one of the coolest places on earthly. It's almost other worldly. We got to hike and climb. So much fun!
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It's feeling festive around here. I spotted this b It's feeling festive around here. I spotted this beautiful thing in the park on my run. It's beginning to look more like Christmas and my running soul is enjoying every single sighting of Christmas joy. It seems like there's a lot of people that are hurting right now, in the community. We're going to have to work together to spread joy this year and help fill those needs that families have this year. How can I be of service today?
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