Planned to celebrate Rithvi’s 4th birthday at Aulani, a Disney resort in Oahu. Flew out on Tuesday Feb 6th 9am and back on Saturday feb 10th 9:30pm. Flight was smooth, everyone excited 😊.

This is our 2nd trip to Oahu. The last time was when R was 8 months old and T was 3. In retrospect I can appreciate how much more easier this trip was. I didn’t of course appreciate that when I was there (of course). R spilled juice on herself on the airplane but other than that uneventful. R watched boss baby back to back and T had a field day watching movies back to back. Will there be a Day when passenger airplanes have bigger restrooms for parents of babies & little kids?

After we landed ~2:30pm, picked up our rental car and headed out to get some lunch. We now know not to expect to find anything decent near the Honolulu airport. Mainly industrial area with plenty of hole in the wall places. Picked a Thai place, food was ok. We then headed straight to the resort and kids super excited to get on ‘lazy river’. A long stretch of gently flowing water you can go on a tube. We loved it!

we then moved to hang out at the infinity pool and as it got cooler in the evening, kids loved the hot tub/jacuzzi.

our room was decent, had a partial island and ocean view.

wrapped up the 1st day with shower and dinner and snoozed by 9pm. On most days kids were so tired from playing in the water that they would struggle to stay awake for their dinner and sometimes skip and sleep through it all. Had dinner with live music, good appetizers and drinks. Sanjeev did some light groceries so we could do breakfast in the room through our trip.

the next day was just hanging out at the resort and let kids play as much as they want in water. We hit the beach first (private beach of the resort), Rithvi too focused playing in the sand and Tanush loving the sand and water.

then went back to the pool followed by lunch. We tried to convince both kids to go to “Aunty’s beach house’, a place that kids can be dropped off and they apparently love. Not so lucky with our kids but they finally relented. They liked it there but needed to be convinced every time to hang out there. Rithvi watched a movie in princess dress up clothes.

In the evening Tanush hit the beach again while Sanjeev got some amazing pics. Rithvi couldn’t make up her mind and kept going from jacuzzi to pool & back.

Routine same as previous day, shower & dinner at another restaurant on the resort. All of us were exhausted, especially kids

the next day was Rithvi’s birthday & we were greeted with a rainbow in the morning.

The plan was to drive to the Polynesian cultural center the whole day, it would end with luau and show. The kids spent the morning at Aunty’s beach house while I packed.

Aulani is on the south tip of the island and we needed to drive an hour to the north tip of the island. We loved the drive, along the coast.

reached the Polynesian center around 11:40am. It’s basically a large campus where you learn the culture of many Polynesian islands including Hawaii, like Samoa, aeterroa (part of New Zealand), Fiji, Tahiti, Tonga etc. each island has a show, activities that you can participate in. There is a canoe pageant show at 2:30pm that is quite popular.

Us watching the welcome show at Samoa center

T helping with making a Samoan raw banana & coconut milk dessert

Rithvi & Tanush learning how to start fire the Samoan way

Me showing off my Aetorroan tattoo

Rithvi & I at the canoe pageant show, she has an arm tattoo too

Rithvi was absolutely mesmerized by the Hawaiian drums

Dad & kids learning the Hawaiian dance

We had the luau (dinner & dance) scheduled at 4:30pm. Headed off there after getting Rithvi to wear something special. Pic at the entrance of the dinner area

Dinner was a buffet and the dances & songs were very nice. Kids enjoyed though Rithvi asked why she wasn’t getting any gifts for her birthday. 😊 Sanjeev & I volunteered with others to dance on stage. Sanjeev was made bakra & asked to dance solo after all of us. He ended up very popular and lots of people complimented him after 😇😍

After dinner we did a canoe ride, hung out at some more island areas, watched a short movie about Hawaii & then headed for the 1 hour show @ 7:30pm. Kids were super tired & Rithvi slept when the show started.

Reached the resort at 10:30pm, very fun and tiring day. Skipping all the ‘fun’ we had working through logistics of carting kids from one place to another, restroom breaks and accidents 😊 still better than 3 years ago.

The next day was our last full day at the resort, the plan was to take it easy and let them be. To summarize, learned to play the ukulele as a family, R got pics with Moana, T with Mickey and Minnie, lunch followed by shaved ice.

Got to be a part of a pool party, quite fun. It was a challenge getting Rithvi out of the water on this day & she really tested my patience.

Did an early dinner at 5:30pm, the restaurant was ocean facing and I loved our last meal, the drinks, appetizers and dessert. Sanjeev got do more amazing photography and we definitely have fond memories of our trip.

Pics of our drinks & desserts

Pics of our view enjoying the sunset while we ate

The next day flight was at 2:30pm, Tanush hung out at Aunty’s beach house learning the dance again. Flight back was smooth, a tad delayed but not too bad