JtmunnTri-Cities Washington!
Cool. I'm up in Vancouver, BC. I'll take a look over the next bit here and shoot you a PM with what I have.
Used gear is the way to go, they grow too fast to put anything through too much use so there is lots of quality gear available. And if you can find someone with slightly older kids the hand me downs are a massive help.
My daughter started at 18 months, and it took probably 2.5 seasons to get to a point where there was actually some skiing happening. So best thing is to understand what you're signing up for. There will be days where you don't make it out of the car. There will be days that you do 1 run and go back home. There will be days where there's more playing in the snow than sliding on skis. It can be extremely difficult to stay relaxed and go with the flow when some days all you want to do is get 1 good run in for yourself.
One tip I got that helped massively was to start having them put their gear on at home in the fall before you start. That way it's not ALL new when you get to the hill. Our daughter would walk around the house in her boots, she'd play in her snowpants, put her helmet on etc. Anything to get them used to the gear.
When we started skiing I started by holding her, and there were many days where she wouldn't even wear skis, just her boots and I would hold her in between my legs and go down the bunny hill. Then moved on to holding her with poles and a strap around her waist, we never used those harnesses. Lessons are a huge help too, it's someone else other than you telling her what to do and there are other kids to learn from.
Good luck. It's tons of work and tons of fun. Feel free to PM if you have any questions as you start.