ToddlingAroundTheWorld

Finished my eighth, and final #millermarathon last night, while walking 227 miles from Rexburg toward the #majesticfamilyreunion in Sandy, Utah. I have now completed 209.9 miles. Now have landed somewhere just east of North Salt Lake, UT. This one is dedicated to my third little brother , Brandon Miller Brandon is almost exactly 12 years younger than me. He capped off our seven kids perfectly, adding another red-head to our Neapolitan bucket of ice cream. Though he was not your standard feisty, Irish type of red-head, he was even-tempered and so much fun. He was a smiley little guy - until he got to be not such a little guy, Brandon is now 6’5” and has a couple of inches on his ‘big’ brother. Though we are quite a bit apart age-wise, it was fun to watch him grow up. He became quite the baller and played at Olympus High. I had married and move to Seattle by this time, so unfortunately didn’t get to watch him play too often. Though I did go watch him play in the State playoffs in 2000. ...

Finished my seventh #millermarathon last night, while walking 227 miles from Rexburg toward the #majesticfamilyreunion in Sandy, Utah. I have now completed 183.5 miles. Now have landed somewhere just south of Pine View Reservoir, outside of Ogden, UT. This one is dedicated to my second little sister , Ashley Miller Ashley is the kindest, most thoughtful, loving and compassionate person I know. We were blessed to have her live up here in the PNW near us for 18 years. She came up on a basketball scholarship to Seattle Pacific University. She was so fun to watch. She dominated in the paint, and was called Xena, Warrior Princess, by her teammates. Not only because she looked like Xena, but because she was as fierce and powerful as a ball player. She loved our kids and they loved seeing her. She would take our young kids overnight for sleepovers and one time they even thought it would be hilarious to make a Barbie cake for my birthday. My daughter, Autumn enjoyed my incredulous reaction s...

Finished a 15K on Christmas Day ! 9.3 miles total around the Jovita trails and then on my sister, Kelly’s Peloton treadmill after an amazing Christmas Dinner, courtesy of Ruth and Kelly! The peloton took me on walks around Iceland and Oahu. So cool! With that I was able to finish the Charlie Brown Christmas virtual challenge. I then hung the medal on our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. 🙂 #toddlingaroundtheworld

Finished my sixth #millermarathon last night, while walking 227 miles from Rexburg toward the #majesticfamilyreunion in Sandy, Utah. I have now completed 157.8 miles. Current milepost is somewhere near Paradise, UT. This one is dedicated to my first little sister , Brooke Miller Ordenes While you couldn’t quite tell when she was born, Brooke was a towhead just like me. After having a red headed sister then two brown haired little brothers, I was excited to get another vanilla to join our Neapolitan ice cream of kids. Brooke was a happy girl and quick to make friends. She also was into sports and an incredible athlete. She has an intense, competitive drive and excelled in both soccer and basketball. Growing up with three older brothers, she feared no one and even ended up on a basketball scholarship at Western Wyoming University. My stories around Brooke would not be complete without telling of the TWO times she totally knocked me down for the count. One time, Me, Brian and Brad wer...

Finished my fifth #millermarathon tonight, while walking 227 miles from Rexburg toward the #majesticfamilyreunion in Sandy, Utah. I have now completed 134.8 miles. Now have landed somewhere near Bear Lake. This one is dedicated to my second little brother , Brad Miller. It was an adventure growing up with Brad. He was into GI Joe, Transformers, He Man and so many fun toys in the 80’s. One of the funny memories of Brad was when Michael Jackson’s Thriller came out, he would dress up in Kelly’s leather jacket, roll up his jeans, put penny loafers on, along with a white glove and grease his hair back while dancing along with the music video. It was hilarious! Brad is a great athlete. He excelled at basketball, and even walked on at the U of U during the Andre Miller era. He tells us of the time that he swatted one of Andre’s shots into the stands during one practice! One of the funny things Brad would do to my kids when they were young, was to tell them a story about how he was born wi...

Finished my fourth #millermarathon last night, while walking from Rexburg toward the #majesticfamilyreunion in Sandy, Utah. 105.1 miles down, 122 to go! This one is dedicated to my little big brother , Brian Miller Yes, that wasn’t a typo. My little brother is bigger than me. It was always a tough pill to swallow as he started creeping past me Height-wise, and I couldn’t even cheat by standing on my tiptoes, cause he still beat me. He is now 6’6”, so I forever have to look up to him. 🙂. One of our favorite stories that Brian tells is when he went into a Wendy’s and ordered a large frosty. As the girl brought it out to him, he exclaimed: ‘That’s alotta Frosty!’ To which she replied: ‘You alotta man!’ Haha Just 18 months apart, we did quite a bit together when we were younger while running around Mt. Majestic Drive. I remember riding our Big wheels down the hill and Brian crashing into a parked car. We played soccer and basketball together, ran around in the fields above and on the g...

Finished my third #millermarathon last night, while walking toward the #majesticfamilyreunion in Sandy, Utah. I am now 1/3 of the way from Rexburg to Sandy. This one is dedicated to my big sister, Kelly Miller Kelly has always been a great example to me. She is the oldest of our seven kids, and was the built-in baby sitter. She was often moms ‘elf’ during Christmas, and helped so much with making great Christmases for our family. She took this responsibility in-stride and took care of each of her siblings, and she is still doing that today! She is the most caring, generous, thoughtful and kind person I know. She has a wonderful sense of humor, and keeps us all laughing whenever we are together. There are so many instances throughout my life where she has been so generous to me and my family. She has helped make many of my dreams come true! When I was trying to get to Japan to be an English teacher, she helped purchase my plane ticket. She helped get tickets for Austin and Jaylin to go...

#millersnoshnwalk week 39 One of the places LeAnn and I first fell in love with when we moved to the FW was the Tokyo Japanese Steakhouse. It’s a teppanyaki restaurant with the talented chefs who put on a culinary show. The onion volcano never fails to impress. The 8 inch tall mound of butter on their carts lets you know you are in for a flavorful ride. If you are one of the lucky ones, you might even catch a flying shrimp in your shirt pocket! The food has always been great - my go-to is the steak and chicken, and LeAnn loves the chicken and shrimp. We enjoyed another great dinner there, and then went and hit the mall for a bit of Christmas shopping and walking. It was another fantastic noshnwalk outing with my favorite girl.

Finished my second #millermarathon last night, while walking toward the #majesticfamilyreunion in Sandy, Utah. This one is dedicated to my mom This is my beautiful mother, Linda Hellewell Miller. She is one of the strongest people I know. She loves her family passionately, and has taught her children kindness and compassion. She has always been a faithful and determined follower of Jesus Christ. She exemplifies a Christlike love toward others. She always worked so hard to help support our family and was an elementary school teacher for many years. She was always a favorite teacher of her students. Everyone who knows her, loves her. She put up with me bringing home: iguanas, rabbits, hamsters, 100s of gallons of fish tanks, dogs, and even a boa constrictor. Though I know I drove her crazy with many of my escapades, she would always forgive and teach me how to overcome and she always made me strive to be a better person. I am so grateful for my mother. I couldn’t be more blessed than ...

To kick off my new virtual walking mission, I am dedicating this final leg to my parents and my siblings. I am walking the final 227 miles, the last of my #toddlingaroundtheworld journey- the distance from Rexburg Idaho to Sandy, Utah. Our family was first raised in a beautiful home along the Wasatch mountains, right above the Willow Creek Golf Course, on a street named Mt. Majestic. I am tagging this leg as #MajesticFamilyReunion. I will dedicate one #millermarathon (26.2miles) worth of walking this route to each of my parents and siblings. I will start with the man who started our family that I love so much… This is my dad, Mark Miller. He is kind. He is loving. He is loyal and fun. He taught me about faith. He taught me about the love of sports. He taught me how to dream big. I loved growing up as his son. He was and is my hero. We used to sing a song in primary called ‘Daddy’s Homecoming’. It went like this: “I’m so glad when daddy* comes home Glad as I can be; Clap my hands and sh...

Now I am just 227 miles from completely circling the globe on this #toddlingaroundtheworld journey. Five years and 5 months since starting the virtual walk, I have completed 16,483 miles. The plan is to finish the remaining 227 miles by the end of this month. I need to walk almost 9 miles a day to complete it. I found the perfect route, to get back to where I started from - where I grew up in Sandy, Utah. It is 225 miles (as the crow flies) from Rexburg to Sandy, UT. This will take me back home and I will dedicate this last piece of the journey to the family I grew up with. I have amazing and loving parents, and each of my siblings are so special to me. The memories we have and continue to make together bring me such happiness. I’m excited to head back home and finish this journey with each of them. Over the past couple of months, many of the miles have been churned out on the treadmill to evade the cold and rain. I was able to finish a couple of different #treadmillmoviemarathons -...

#millersnoshnwalk week 38 This week got a bit crazy, with so many things going on at night between just the two of us that we didn’t have a chance to go out to eat. So we grabbed takeout to keep our #millersnoshnwalk streak going. LeAnn was driving home from EF DUB, gave me a call and decided to do takeout from Taco Del Mar. this was one of our go-to’s earlier in our marriage, so it was a nice little bit of nostalgia she brought home. LeAnn had a pork taco salad, and I had a beef burrito - all nice and warm and tin foiled up! Remember: ‘Peel as you go… Don’t Unwrap… or it’s in your lap!’ It was a muy sabrosa cena!