2011 Outback, 95k miles, overheating issues; head gaskets? I need advice here.

Subaru friends,

So, earlier this week our 2011 Subaru Outback 2.5i had the red blinking light come on to signal overheating after crossing a high mountain pass near us in Colorado. It went away after coasting down the pass. Today it came on again while passing the same mountain and my wife stopped at a shop in the Denver area to have it checked out. I had noticed a more unusual amount of smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe when she started it in the driveway. It wasn't necessarily dark or blue, and it didn't alarm me enough to switch cars.

The coolant reservoir is full and not very hot and no leaks could be found. When she called me and started explaining what the shop had said, I knew before she said the words: "head gaskets". YIKES. It's at 95k miles, maintenance has always been done on time, it's always run absolutely issue-free and now this happened really out of the blue. They quoted the fix at $2100-2400, depending on what else needs to be done. We're also coming up on new tires, the belt needs replacing in the next year and now in my mind the car is tainted.

This sucks, so give me some advice. Am I better off leasing a new Outback (the latest deal is great, $0 down for $250 a month and the car is still worth some money and is paid off) or buying a CPO Outback or should I consider sinking $3-4k in the next few months into a now seven year old Outback with a major fix and possible lasting damage done already?

Talk to me, friends. (And yes, we still love our Subarus and we're pretty set on the Outback because of our big dog and it's towing capacity.)