great basin.

Eliza is our little adventurer. She is a little, wild thing and we love her. But, we swear, she is on a mission to destroy herself. She loves nothing more than to run and climb and give me daily heart attacks. 

We spent the night at Great Basin National Park on our way to Utah a couple of weeks ago. It is such a beautiful place. We got there after dark, so Eliza just curled up in my arms and fell asleep right away. She was so excited to wake up the next morning and start exploring. She would pick up sticks and poke them in holes. She would waddle around the picnic table collected pebbles, and stopping by every few rotations to grab some cereal from her bowl. She loved it out there.

So, we went for a hike up to the lake and Eliza sat in her pack and held leaves in her hand. When we reached the lake, we let her dip her hands in the cool water and she splashed happily. 

As you may have heard, it didn't end so peacefully. Poor girl tried to run, tripped, and hit her head on a rock while we were up by the lake. In one quick second she took a step and smacked her head. It all happened so fast.

It was seriously the most terrifying experience of my life. It was a mess, I was a mess. I have never been so scared. She hit right above her right eyebrow, a perfect gaping hole. Not to be gruesome, but it looked like she had been shot in the head. It bled for just a minute and then stopped. She screamed so loud, and then I finally grabbed her and she just clung to me all the way back down the mountain. Once we got in the car and saw the ranger, she was completely fine. They told me not to let her fall asleep during the drive, because we still had two and half more hours until we would reach a hospital. So, I played sock puppet and read her books. She just laughed and giggled, and didn't even nod off once. She was such a strong girl.

Honestly, the worst part was the stitches. They swaddled her arms, and held her down on the table with a light shining in her eyes and a needle in her head. I had to look away so I wouldn't scare her because I was crying so hard. She screamed and screamed. She got two stitches, and then they let me hold her again. She was shaking so much.

She immediately fell asleep after that, and we were given orders to wake her every two hours for the next two days to make sure that there was no delayed internal bleeding. Those were scary nights.

But, she is doing just fine. She got her stitches out a few days later and was such a good girl about not pulling at her band-aid for awhile. She didn't seem bothered by any of it. But, she now has a deep, dimple scar on her forehead. I'm only going to say it once, and then I will stop talking about it because I really don't want her to be conscious about it later: I feel really horrible that she will have that scar right in the middle of her face! But, scars fade and we all know Eliza is going to be a fiery thing.

I'm so grateful that my baby girl is ok. I know it could have been so much worse. Being a parent is so scary. I know that this will be the first bump of many. But, can we please just say that we got it over and done with!?