A crying baby

So Adyson is 10 months now and we have almost always put her to bed asleep. So the other day, we were exhuasted from lots of taveling and running around and we put her to bed half asleep. She did not like that and she cried, well more like screamed herself to fell asleep. She cried for 20 minutes, not a sad cry, an angry one, she threw her pacifier at the door but finally fell asleep. We on the other hand laid in bed tense, staring at the ceiling saying do you think she is ok (keep in mind that we can sit up in bed look into the hall into her room and can see her standing in her crib) Kris asked if I had said goodnight, i said yes and then we debated on going in there a million times, should we pick her up or not and how long would we let her cry and is this method a good one for us. Long story short, she fell asleep, was not emotionally hurt, and woke up in a great mood the next day. I put her down tonight and she screamed for 4 minutes and went to sleep, big difference. I just hate that she cries when we put her in her bed awake but she is the child that will keep going and going until she passes out if we let her. I hope next time she just goes to sleep no crying, I can't take it when she cries :-)