Welcome to the new blog!  This is my first official post on the site, every other post you’ve been seeing have been moved from the old blog.  I’m still in the process of tweaking a few things, working on a new (and more exciting) header image, and editing the format of posts.  Has anyone else moved form WordPress.com to a WordPress.org blog?  It sure is complicated.  I’ve learned that I was definitely not born with layout coding skills.  Anyone out there know any good websites or books to learn this kind of stuff?

I’m so glad to hear from a bunch of you already!   Thank you again for visiting and it’s been great to hear that you like the new site!  It’s been a long time since I last posted.  Wordpress issues and working on a new blog site were definitely a large reason for the long hiatus.  I commend all of you out there for self-hosting your own!

Another reason for my long break in posting?

I just returned from Montana! My family and I decided to do something different for the annual summer vacation (we normally go to Hilton Head Island, SC).  It was a quasi-celebration of my recent college graduation (any excuse, right?), as well as a chance to explore a new area and do some different types of activities.  We ended up going to a guest ranch for a week, where we did tons of great hiking, horse back riding, swimming, relaxing, and exploring the area.  Another major activity at the ranch?  EATING!  Our ranch prided itself on great cuisine, so I’ve pretty much been stuffing my face for the past 7 days.  I’ve also never eaten so much meat in one week in my life!   Vegetarians beware.

Since we were only about 15 miles away from Yellowstone National Park, we also spent an entire day exploring as much as we possibly could.   I’ve never been out West (besides California) nor seen Yellowstone, it was so beautiful!  If you’ve already checked out the site’s Pho-tography page (still being worked on), you will have also learned that I recently took the plunge and purchased a Canon EOS Rebel T1i camera!  I’m so excited and thrilled with my decision to get this camera, I’ve been wanting a DSLR for a long time now and despite an empty bank account, I couldn’t be happier.  Visiting Montana was also a perfect opportunity to test it out.  To give you all a sneak peek of my week there, here are a few of my favorite photos:

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Yep, that last picture pretty much sums up my consumption of food recently.  By the way, if you’re curious that was a beef tenderloin with roasted potato hash, sauteed mushrooms, fresh haricot vert with a gorgonzola sauce.  It was delicious!   But I am definitely ready for some casual, vegetarian meals now that I’m back home.  On that note…I must go make myself a big salad and Amy’s black bean soup for lunch!

Has anyone else been out West to Montana, Wyoming, or even just a guest ranch before?