Another story beginning written with Lincoln School, Costa Rica

Max Gil had always wanted to climb a mountain. He said that it didn’t matter which mountain it was (although he’d prefer a pretty high mountain), as long as he got to climb a mountain.
Max would spend hours in bed just dreaming about climbing a mountain. Max had a very nice room. The walls were painted dark blue and the curtains were made of silk and lace. Max had eighty-three building blocks, five boxes full of toys, drawers and drawers of beautiful writing paper, and lots of different things to amuse himself with. Still Max was not happy. He wanted to climb a mountain.
That was why he was so excited when his father told him that they would be going to Mt. Chirripo. In fact, Max jumped up and down and nearly knocked over the breakfast table. He bumped his head on the chandelier. The chandelier ended up on the floor and the candles all fell out. Fire streaked across the hardwood floor.
“Aaaaaah!” Max shrieked as his socks burned. Max’s father was laughing so hard that he didn’t even notice. Max’s older sister, his mother, and his younger brother threw water on Max and the floor. When they put out the fire, the floor was scorched and black.
“We’ll die of smoke inhalation if we don’t get out of here soon,” Max’s father grumbled as soon as he saw what had happened.
“Let’s be off to Mt. Chirripo!” Max shouted.
“That’s a good idea,” his father said, and they skipped breakfast. They did, however, take along some hardboiled eggs and some bread. Little did they know how much they would need it.

Later that day they arrived at Mt. Chirripo. They were all rather tired from the long drive in the car.
“I can’t wait to climb a mountain, I can’t wait to climb a mountain, I can’t wait to climb a mountain,” Max chanted. His older sister slapped him on the cheek and Max stopped chanting. It was only then that Max stopped to look at the beauty of the mountain. They were very high up and the air felt different. Max stared down and found his heart plummeting. They were so high up that he was already getting nervous that he would fall off the edge.
“Careful, Max, or you’ll fall off the edge!” his father shouted. Max jumped back immediately. That had been exactly what he had been thinking, after all.
Finally, after getting all their food into bags and getting everyone organized, they began the long walk up Mt. Chirripo.