I am a Ford truck lover but I bought a 1997 Yukon for your exact same situation. I had lots of highway trips with newborn and I have two smaller breed dogs. I bought it because:
-GM 350 is uber simple and cheap to repair, not alot of aftermarket but there is enough power for most
-has a reasonable abount of towing capacity
-it can do broddy's in a normal city street
-easy access to the baby's car seat, my wife at 5'2" has a little trouble reaching in for the boyo but she can use the running board if she needs
-the SLT is about all that is needed for creature comfort, the suburbans had rear HVAC but you can add that to the Yukon or upgrade to the Burb if you find you want it
-the Yukon is way smaller than the Burbs
-the rear windows are 100% child proof since the only come down about 8" because of the shorter rear doors
-I added floor brackets for a third row seat and now can tote 8 people easily
-for a small family of 3 all of you can sleep in the rear cargo area if you fold down the 2nd row of seats
-the cost of replacement parts is uber-cheap...junkyards have lots of 1988-2001 GM trucks and suvs.....a good indicator of parts costs is a window regulator or ujoint repair
-I paid $5000 for my Yukon with 145,000 miles and I have seen them with upwards of 200k on this exact drivetrain in lots of different platforms
-we get 12mpg in town and 16mpg on the highway, which is the same as we got with our 2002 Explorer that I was cramped in when I drove
-the cost for Liability and PIP for 12 months was $474!!!!! Way cheaper than any other vehicle we had quoted
-If you found one with the 6.5L Diesel you could be better off than the gasser but IMO it isn't worth the added problems the 6.5L Turbo engines had, a buddy has a $7000 6.5L engine in his 1995 Dually crew cab that might blue book out at $5000??? So if the 350 craps out under my ownership I will rebuild it or find a junkyard pullout and keep it gas
-I have a large dog crate that fits in the back of the Yukon perfectly so the doggos can get trashed in mud and the interior stays clean
-I can lay the second row seats down and load enough tooling to rebuild a log truck engine, short of the sky hook!
Cons to the mid 90's GM SUVs:
-4L60E is not the strongest (however it is old enough that it can be repaired to bulletproof with aftermarket support, and it is worth repairing)
-the rear door windows don't go down all the way (built in child saftey)
-Not a Ford but the Centurion's are hard to find
-Axles are not the strongest for big tires (these chassis are very common for SAS and easy upgraders)
I would deffinatly go with the Yukon again since everything that the Suburbans have over the Yukon can be added to the Yukon except for the monstrous curb size. I plan on eventually adding a rear space heater if it ends up being needed as well as upgrading the front bucket seats to ones out of a Chevy Equinox that has leather and heat, the seats from 1997 are comfortable but nobody considered seat back support utill after 2004 apparently.
"Did you guys not read his original message? His budget is $8k." 
