Of course everyone loves "their" vehicle, that's why they have them. I've had a lot of SUV's over the years, campers and such.. I've had 4x4 Ram Charger, Bronco, Bronco II, Wagoneer, 2 Suburbans, Troopers (91/96), X-terra (for sale), 2wd Dodge 2500 quad cummins, AWD Astro van (just acquired), tent, pop up camper, and a 5th nice wheel. I came to the conclusion I wanted something that was easy to drive and sleep in without towing something and I have to drive it to work every day. That's why I just got the AWD Astro van (04 with 42k miles). I'm in the process of turning it into an overnighter (not an expedition vehicle). I do a lot of road trips and weekend adventures but seldom more than 2 nights. I hated towing because it was simply a point A to point B thing. A slightly modified van seemed like a good choice. I drooled over the bad boys like a Sportsvan, Quigley and such but didn't think they would be practical grocery getters and cost 5-10x what the Astro did. The mid size van just made sense but that is still to be determined. I've driven it daily and it's easier to drive, park and such than the quad cab dodge. Just started the overnighter conversion so we will see how that plays out..
From experience with dog/kids (Puddles at 50lbs and 2 boys..) my favorite choice for an overnighter (not expedition vehicle) that can do groceries, camping, soccer games, 100% reliable and a ton of other things would be the cummins quad cap with a camper top, tent or small popup (if you don't mind towing, Maybe a roof top tent?). I really don't need 4x4 for 95% of the places I want to go so the 2wd cummins has been my "goto" vehicle for years now. It's an 03 and didn't even come with a catalytic converter. I've put about 150k miles on it and it has done everything asked of it but my wife refuses to drive it. Great mileage, dependable, versatile, daily driver/people hauler, tows a 8k lb 5th wheel, gets 23mpg on road trips (15 towing), etc.. No negatives other than the cost of fuel these past few years. If I lived in 4x4 country, the 4x4 version would have been nice. )-:} The old 4x4 suburban (96 model) would be my second choice for a family rig. It was a great vehicle and served me well but it was VERY thirsty (8mpg towing and 13 on the road) and had a lot of little maintenance issues never encountered with the cummins (cummins has had less than $250 in repairs in the over 150k miles of driving..).
AWD Astro van is destined to be my new weekender (we recently moved to West Texas and 4x4/AWD is just more useful out here). It was easy to mod for overnighting (work in progress), has a reputation for reliability, very cheap (compared to a 4x4 Cummins truck or other 4x4 vans), AWD (amazing in the snow here a few weeks ago), easy to drive, wife and kids don't even mind driving it. Easy to modify if you are into that sort of thing. Jury is totally out on the Astro but if my homework is even close to right, I'll have it for a long time but the kids and dog won't be going with us in this one. Only advantage the Astro has is 8 passenger seating, wife doesn't mind driving it and it has AWD with a rear locker, converts to camper in 30 minutes and has decent towing ability but it gets horrible mileage (18 on the freeway). Wish I could have afforded a redone VW Syncro with a TDI.. (-:}
What ever you get, even if it's a VW bug and a pup tent, get that kid interested in doing something other than playing video games all day! There are a hundred ways to "skin the cat" and all of them beat sitting around watching reruns.
One thing to consider is that we only had one kid until the second one came along. It might be good money to plan for future expansion unless your wife had you neutered or something after the first one.. (-:}
). LIke rxm6 said, Compass (or the Jeep Patriot) might work well, too. 
