The Beach and Hay Cutting

Summer has been good to us, with today being another exceptional day. The humidity has been gone this week, with nice cool nights where everyone sleeps better, and lovely sunny days that are great for pants and t-shirts. Today was a little warmer so we decided to go to the beach. There is a beach about 15 minutes from our house and I can't believe we haven't been there at all this summer, but in our defense it has been a very rainy summer. When we got home from the beach Tim (the guy who lives across the road) was baling his hay, so we got to sit on the porch and watch him work his tractor and baler and trailer. (We also watched him cut the hay earlier this week - Tom LOVES farming.) This first picture is Tom, peeking around the post at me and Will.
There is only so much baling you can watch (although, Tim made square bales this time instead of round ones, and the square baler is far more entertaining because it ejects the bales with an amazing force and tosses them into the trailer instead of leaving the round bales on the ground for later pick-up.) So once Tom was bored with the tractor, he started playing "I'm going to work." This is quite a funny game that he plays, and he even comes to give me a kiss before he leaves, and tells me that I have to tell him to be careful. He learned this from Grandma and Grandpa and finds it endlessly amusing. The picture below is Tom, home from "work" and talking on his Blackberry.
He went to work about a dozen times, and came home just as many times (even parking his truck in the garage before coming home) so he had to talk on his Blackberry many times, too. Again, this is one of Grandpa's favourite things to do, and Tom has been missing Grandma and Grandpa these days.
Here's a cute picture of Tom, watching the tractor switch trailers (the first trailer was full). I wonder if he'll be a farmer when he grows up, or if this is just a typical "Boy" thing?
Ok, so back to the beach. This was Will's first time at the beach and I'd have to say he liked it. He was tired by the time we left though, so he was getting quite grumpy, but at the start he was having a great time just feeling the sand on his feet.
Ah, the elation of feet in water! I must apologize for the goofy hat that is 10 times too big. I'm not even sure where this hat came from, but I've been searching the house for a week for the one that will fit him and I can't find it anywhere. Since he has such a big white noggin, I had to put something on his head...
One of his favourite expressions this week - the tongue out. Tom went through a tongue phase, but it was more of a Gene Simmons sort of thing, hanging way out. Will just sticks the tip of his tongue out and it's really quite cute!
You may ask: "what's going on in this picture?" I was wondering, too. I was sitting with Will in the shade while Straub was playing with Tom. After I watched them for a bit I thought I should take a picture. You can see them about the middle, Straub in a gray t-shirt and ball cap.
Closer inspection was needed. I left Will to roll around on our blanket for a minute while I checked in on Tom. I found him buried in the sand, looking a bit concerned about the whole thing.

Turns out he could bust his feet out, so he was ok! He thought it was pretty funny that he could be buried. Finally, here are a few pictures of Will. Until this week he really didn't have more than one expression - happy. (Ok, he has a sad face, too, but we only see that if we're being stupid and we forget to give him food at the right time.) But it's such a cute happy face that I thought I'd share (please excuse the mess in the background - it's late in the day so the back room is a mess!)