With your budget, it might be better to start small and then work your way up. We started out in a tent. I tent camped for years before my wife and I had kids. She tent camped with me once or twice.
We tent camped with our now 12 year old daughter twice before she was 1 and she loved it. When we were in the tent she loved to just run around the tent. After our son was born, we upgraded to a 12' box pop-up (21 foot open). It had a queen bed on one end and a king on the other. You should be able to tow most pop-ups with your Pilot. Ours without A/C was about 1600 lbs dry.
We bought our pop-up when it was 9 years old for $3600. It was in great shape. We used it for 1 year and decided to upgrade to a 3 bed Hybrid Travel Trailer. The same day we bought the hybrid, we privately sold the popup for $3200. We figured with 3 beds everyone would have their own bed once they were old enough to need their own bed. Four years later we upgraded to a Class C with bunks.
I think our progression from tent to Class C worked well for us. We had a year with the pop-up and used it a lot in the 1 year we owned it. The kids, 3 and 1, at the time really enjoyed camping so we knew going with the Travel Trailer would work out.
Also, if you are set on an older Class C, make sure you check with the campgrounds that you plan to use most if they'll allow older RVs. There are a good number of campgrounds that don't allow RVs older than 10 years.
-Michael
