Poor performing website

I have a website with a blog and multiple photo galleries, plus a few static pages. Most pages on my site are very slow to load, even when using a high speed internet connection. There’s also a persistent problem with pages that freeze, and won’t allow a user to scroll up or down. This happens quite commonly when you follow a link from one of my pages to an external page, and then navigate back to my site. The original page sticks/freezes. The problem can be corrected by refreshing the page, but it shouldn’t be happening in the first place. I’m running a theme called Trend. I like the look, but it definitely has some quirks. Could both the dismal page loading speed and the page freeze issues be related to the theme? Should I consider a higher level of service from my host? The website is non-commercial–there are no ads, and I’m not selling anything. At this point I’m just trying to build content and get some traffic going, and these glitches are turning people off, and holding me back.

check the site at rcquinn.com

Any advice on improving performance, and making the site more user friendly would be much appreciated!

Thanks,

Rick